Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Producing offspring or fruit in great abundance; fertile.
- adj. Producing abundant works or results: a prolific artist. See Synonyms at fertile.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Producing young or fruit, especially in abundance; fruitful; fertile; productive in general: as, a prolific female; a prolific tree; prolific seed.
- Serving to give rise or origin; having the quality of generating: as, a controversy prolific of evil consequences; a prolific brain.
- Same as proliferous . Synonyms and Productive, etc. See
fruitful .
Wiktionary
- adj. Fertile, producing offspring or fruit in abundance—applied to plants producing fruit, animals producing young, etc.
- adj. Similarly producing results or works in abundance
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having the quality of generating; producing young or fruit; generative; fruitful; productive; -- applied to plants producing fruit, animals producing young, etc.; -- usually with the implied idea of frequent or numerous production.
- adj. Serving to produce; fruitful of results; active.
- adj. Proliferous.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. intellectually productive
- adj. bearing in abundance especially offspring
Etymologies
- French prolifique, from Medieval Latin prōlificus : Latin prōlēs, prōl-, offspring; see al-2 in Indo-European roots + Latin -ficus, -fic.
Examples
“The word "prolific" may well have been invented to describe Robert Pollard, who I must guess is sick to death of people telling him about his POTENTIAL if he would just FOCUS HIMSELF and CHANNEL HIS ENERGY.”
“The CBS News program "48 Hours" in 1993 devoted an hourlong program, "See You in Court; Civil War, Anthony Martin Clogs Legal System with Frivolous Lawsuits," to what it called his prolific filings.”
“Neil Young -- One more transplanted Canadian -- Dylan's rival in prolific songwriting, but more about him in Year of the Horse, yet to come.”
“He studied mathematics and physics under Santucci and became known as a prolific writer on mathematical and historical subjects.”
“He is known as a prolific fundraiser and has devoted considerable energy to filling his campaign coffers.”
“Now the word prolific just doesn't quite seem to cut it, but prolific he is.”
“STL Hops: I went to a store the other day and someone commented that the writing here at MBR was "prolific" - I wish we could be half as prolific as STL Hops.”
“Schmidt has been making electronic music since the late 80s, and is the very definition of "prolific" - he has produced around 70 (yes, seventy) albums under various names, such as Erik Satin, Midisport, Flanger, LB, Lisa Carbon Trio, Lassigue Bendthaus and Senor Coconut (one of my favorite projects of his, where he reworks Kraftwerk songs as played by a latin/samba band - amazing!).”
“Besides the fact that this ad campaign is just plain misleading, it irks me to no end that the marketing team for Hollywood Pictures thinks they'll attract audiences by calling a serial killer "prolific" -- like, you know, Stephen King's prolific, or Rachael Ray.”
“Nissa, I am greatly honored by the award, but I hardly I think I deserve to be called a prolific blogger these days.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘prolific’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
-
Words starting with PRO
I've noticed many, many words start with PRO and this is just a collection of them.
professional, pronunciation, Prolagus, probable, prog, proximity, profit, procrastincate, prom, pronoun, promise, proactive and 206 more...
-
Latin
exempli gratia, deus ex machina, prolix, sisyphean, minatory, empyrean, cicatrix, demulcent, effulgence, emulsion, garum, ablative and 15 more...
-
Words to make you sound smart
duality, hence, inference, deduce, juxtapose, mundane, gregarious, plight, esoteric, austere, encompass, subsidize and 17 more...
reesetee C_b beat me to it: prolificacy. But it sure is a mouthful. Prolificness is also listed by OED (though tagged as obsolete) and prolificalness is tagged as rare, but prolificity is also listed.
I'm enjoying there being a proliferation of "prolific" nouns. :-) Jan 8, 2009
chained_bear OED says prolificacy. I have a hazy memory of seeing "prolificness" in print, but it may have been a dream. Jan 8, 2009
sionnach Question:
What is the noun that denotes the quality of being 'prolific'?
Jan 8, 2009
bookhling Am I being.... Prolific right now? Aug 15, 2008
gangerh Opposite of 'conlific'? Jan 30, 2008
cosmican A prolific writer Nov 19, 2007