different between fertile vs rich

English

Etymology

Middle English, from French and Old French fertile, from Latin fertilis (“fruitful, fertile”), from fer? (“I bear, carry”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??ta?l/, /?f??t?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?f??t?l/, /?f??ta?l/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?f??ta?l/

Adjective

fertile (comparative more fertile, superlative most fertile)

1. (of land etc) capable of growing abundant crops; productive
2. (biology) capable of reproducing; fecund, fruitful

3. (biology) capable of developing past the egg stage
4. (physics) Not itself fissile, but able to be converted into a fissile material by irradiation in a reactor.

   There are two basic fertile materials: uranium-238 and thorium-232.

5. (of an imagination etc) productive or prolific

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:productive
• fecund

Antonyms

• barren
• infertile

Related terms

• fertilisation, fertilization
• fertilise, fertilize
• fertiliser, fertilizer
• fertility, fertileness
• subfertile

Translations

Further reading

• fertile in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fertile in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• fertile at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• firelet

French

Etymology

From Latin fertilem

Adjective

fertile (plural fertiles)

1. fertile

Further reading

• “fertile” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• flétrie
• flirtée

Italian

Etymology

From Latin fertilis, fertilem

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?r.ti.le/

Adjective

fertile (plural fertili)

1. fertile

   Antonym: infertile

Derived terms

• fertilizzare
• fertilmente

Related terms

• fertilità

See also

• fecondo

Further reading

• fertile in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Adjective

fertile

1. nominative neuter singular of fertilis
2. accusative neuter singular of fertilis
3. vocative neuter singular of fertilis

English

Etymology

From Middle English riche (“strong, powerful, rich”), from Old English r??e (“powerful, mighty, great, high-ranking, rich, wealthy, strong, potent”), from Proto-West Germanic *r?k?, from from Proto-Germanic *r?kijaz (“powerful, rich”), from Proto-Celtic *r?xs (“king”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?re?- (“to straighten, direct, make right”).

Cognate with Scots rik (“mighty, great, noble, rich”), Saterland Frisian riek (“rich”), West Frisian ryk (“rich”), Dutch rijk (“rich”), German reich (“rich”), Danish rig (“rich”), Icelandic ríkur (“rich”), Norwegian and Swedish rik (“rich”). The Middle English word was reinforced by Old French riche, borrowed from the same Proto-Germanic root.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t??/
• Hyphenation: rich
• Rhymes: -?t?

Adjective

rich (comparative richer, superlative richest)

1. Wealthy: having a lot of money and possessions.
2. Having an intense fatty or sugary flavour.
   • 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka (republished by Eland, 2019; p. 116):

     It is the richest food I have ever eaten, and for this reason I soon learned to partake of it sparingly.

   • 1709-1710, Thomas Baker, Reflections on Learning

     High sauces and rich spices are fetch'd from the Indies.

3. Plentiful, abounding, abundant, fulfilling.
   • 1707, Nicholas Rowe, The Royal Convert

     Tho' my Date of mortal Life be short, it shall be glorious; / Each minute shall be rich in some great action.
4. Yielding large returns; productive or fertile; fruitful.

5. Composed of valuable or costly materials or ingredients; procured at great outlay; highly valued; precious; sumptuous; costly.
6. Not faint or delicate; vivid.

7. (informal) Very amusing.

8. (informal) Ridiculous, absurd, outrageous, preposterous, especially in a galling, hypocritical, or brazen way.
   • 1858, William Brown (of Montreal), The Commercial Crisis: Its Cause and Cure (page 28)

     Now, if money be a marketable commodity like flour, as the Witness states, is it not rather a rich idea that of selling the use of a barrel of flour instead of the barrel of flour itself?
9. (computing) Elaborate, having complex formatting, multimedia, or depth of interaction.
   • 2003, Patricia Cardoza, Patricia DiGiacomo, Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

     Some rich text email messages contain formatting information that's best viewed with Microsoft Word.

   • 2008, Aaron Newman, Adam Steinberg, Jeremy Thomas, Enterprise 2.0 Implementation

     But what did matter was that the new web platform provided a rich experience.

10. Of a fuel-air mixture, having less air than is necessary to burn all of the fuel; less air- or oxygen- rich than necessary for a stoichiometric reaction.
11. (finance) Trading at a price level which is high relative to historical trends, a similar asset, or (for derivatives) a theoretical value.

Noun

rich pl (plural only)

1. (Plural) People with a lot of money or property

Synonyms

• (wealthy): wealthy, well off, see also Thesaurus:wealthy

Antonyms

• (wealthy): poor; see also Thesaurus:impoverished
• (plentiful): needy
• (computing): plain, unformatted, vanilla
• (fuel-air mixture): lean
• (financial markets): cheap

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

rich (third-person singular simple present riches, present participle riching, simple past and past participle riched)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To enrich.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To become rich.

References

• rich at OneLook Dictionary Search
• rich in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• chir-