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. (Bot.) Proliferous.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. intellectually productive
- adj. bearing in abundance especially offspring
Etymologies
- 1640-1650: from French prolifique, from Latin proles ("offspring") and facere ("to make"). (Wiktionary)
- French prolifique, from Medieval Latin prōlificus : Latin prōlēs, prōl-, offspring; see al-2 in Indo-European roots + Latin -ficus, -fic. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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MyWordList
for GRE Vocab Building
eccentricity, rife, epiphany, menial, assert, plod, scathing, petty, chum, dilatory, prolific, banal and 10 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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Outwardly secondary
vitiate, compenetrate, ingeminate, prolific, philoprogenitive, diaphaneity, diaphanous, saturnine, tepidness, inanity, knavery, adumbrate and 2 more...
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Latin
exempli gratia, deus ex machina, prolix, sisyphean, minatory, empyrean, cicatrix, demulcent, effulgence, emulsion, garum, ablative and 39 more...
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Let's Talk About Family!
idiosyncrasy, acerbic, sardonic, mordant, aesthetics, prolific, discerning, eclectic, iconoclast, heterodox, disheveled, deplorable and 36 more...
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List 2(starting at 260)
mammoth, overt, valor, aspire, relegate, bias, incisive, scurry, precipitate, singular, inveigh, repulse and 48 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Vocab_TC60Q_txtbook
most vocab in the textbook Page till end chapter 2.
moribund, unflagging, defunct, sated, inveigling, opining, needling, fulminating, lauding, vassals, serfs, minions and 86 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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aykut gre
mossy, intrusive, mettlesome, soliloquy, mocking, dissembler, prevarication, histrionics, aphorism, distinction, concise, pensive and 61 more...
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Neww
specious, disdainfully, vehemently, in lieu of, dismissive, perpetual, preposterous, impasse, fathom, conversely, repugnant, clogged and 142 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
Need to Know!
elicit, educe, refute, cogency, churlish, martinet, veritable, polyglot, dissemble, histrionics, prevarication, verbiage and 166 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for prolific.
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