Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Infertile |
InfertileAdjective1. Incapable of reproducing; "an infertile couple". 2. Not fertile or productive; "a barren tree"; "soil too infertile to sustain real pasture". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "infertile" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1871. (references) |
Etymology: Infertile \In*fer"tile\, adjective. [Latin expression infertilis: compare to the French expression infertile. See In- not, and Fertile.]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonyms: InfertileSynonyms: barren (adj), unfertile (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: fertile (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Unproductiveness | Adjective: unproductive, acarpous, inoperative, barren, addled, infertile, unfertile, unprolific, arid, sterile, unfruitful, infecund; sine prole; fallow; teemless, issueless, fruitless; unprofitable; (useless); null and void, of no effect. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Infertile |
| English words defined with "infertile": barren ♦ desex, desexualize ♦ fix ♦ Impregnant, Infecund, Infecundous, Infertilely ♦ Pine barren ♦ sterilisation, sterilise, sterilised, sterilization, sterilize, sterilized ♦ unfertile, unsex. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "infertile": FIG CAPRIFIER, fish hatchery assistant, fish hatchery attendant, FISH HATCHERY WORKER ♦ Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Infertile" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. French (infertile, unfruitful). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Maybe you're the infertile one around here. (The Good Girl; writing credit: Mike White) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Infertile egg of Ascaris lumbricoides. No mammillated coat.Credit: CDC. |  | Infertile egg of Ascaris lumbricoides.Credit: CDC. |
 | Infertile egg and decorticated egg of Ascaris lumbricoides.Credit: CDC. |  | Infertile egg of Ascaris lumbricoides. Parasite.Credit: CDC. |
 | Infertile egg of Ascaris lumbricoides. Parasite.Credit: CDC. |  | Infertile egg of Ascaris lumbricoides. Parasite.Credit: CDC. |
 | Eggs of Ascaris (fertile and infertile) and Trichuris. Unstained mount of formalin-preserved feces. Parasite.Credit: CDC. | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | About one in five women with PID becomes infertile. (references) | |
However, no XXY male should automatically assume he is infertile without further testing. (references) | ||
If a woman has multiple episodes of PID, her chances of becoming infertile are increased. (references) | ||
Children | Indonesia | The babies allegedly were bought from low-income families and were sold to wealthy infertile couples. (references) |
Economic History | Solomon Islands | Soil quality ranges from extremely rich volcanic to relatively infertile limestone. (references) |
Thailand | Bangkok and its environs are the most prosperous part of Thailand, and the infertile northeast is the poorest. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Infertile" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Infertile" is used about 92 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 92 | 34,282 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "infertile": infertile couple. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
infertile | 26 |
infertile couple | 4 |
infertile woman | 3 |
day infertile | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "infertile"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | jopjellor (barren). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مقحط, مجدب (arid, barren, desert, dry, sterile, sterilized, unfruitful, waste), ماحل, قاحل (arid, barren, desert, dry, waste), غير مخصب (infertility). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | ялов (sterile), неплодороден (jejune, unfruitful, ungenerous), безплоден (abortive, arid, fruitless, still-born, trashy, unfruitful, vain). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 薄, '有"育能力 (unable to have children). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | neplodný (barren, fruitless, sterile, unproductive), neúrodný (barren, poor, sterile). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | infertil (barren, sterile), ufrugtbar (barren, sterile), steril (barren, germfree, sterile), gold (arid, barren, sterile). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | infertiel (barren, sterile), infertibilis (barren, sterile), steriel (barren, germfree, sterile), schraal (barren, coarse, gaunt, in short supply, lean, meager, rough, scanty, scarce, skimpy, skinny, slender, thin), onvruchtbaar (agamic, barren, infertility, sexless, sterile, unfruitful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | nefruktodona (barren, sterile, unfruitful), malfekunda (barren). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | hedelmätön (arid, barren, fruitless, unfruitful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | stérile, infertile. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | unfruchtbar (barren, barrenly, fruitless, sterile, unfruitful, unproductive), unfruchbar. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | στείρος (barren, jejune 2, sterile). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לא פור", שמם (desolate, devastated, forsaken), עקר (barren, basis, crux, doctrine, dogma, essence, foundation, futile, gist, impotent, main, nub, origin, pith, principle, quintessence, root, sterile, substance, tenet), צחיח (arid, barren, dry, parched, torrid, waste). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | terméketlen (barren, dry, effete, fruitless, hungry, jejune, lean, non-productive, sterile, unfruitful, unproductive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | mandul (sterile). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | sterile (arid, barren, fruitless, germfree, sterile, sterilized, unfertile). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | '土 (barren or infertile soil, wasteland). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | "うど (advanced, altitude, arable soil, barren or infertile soil, earth, hades, hardness, height, intensity of light, loess, solidity, wasteland, yellow ochre, yellow soil). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | neuvessoil (barren, infecund, jejune, unfruitful), neuchroaragh. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | ufruktbar (barren). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | infertileay infértil (barren, sterile), estéril (abortive, barren, brood, close-fisted, effete, fruitless, futile, gangue, germfree, hard set, hungry, impoverished, jejune, lean, matrix, penurious, poor, sterile, ungrateful, unproductive, useless, vain). (various references) infructuos (bootless, ineffective, infructuous, unfruitful, unsuccessful, useless), nefertil. (various references) неплодородный (dead, poor). (various references) neplodan (barren, poor, sterile, unfruitful), jalov (aborted, barren, fallow, sterile, unfruitful). (various references) infecundo (barren, sterile), estéril (barren, effete, futile, hungry, sapless, sterile, unfruitful, unproductive, vain). (various references) ofruktbar (arid, barren, jejune, otiose, unfertile, unfruitful, unproductive, unprofitable). (various references) verimsiz (abortive, barren, emaciated, fruitless, idle, ineffectual, inefficacious, inefficient, jejune, lean, poor, sterile, thin, unfruitful, unproductive, unprofitable, unthrifty), kısır (abortive, barren, effete, fruitless, sterile, unfruitful), kıraç (barren, emaciated, gaunt), çorak (arid, barren, desert, gaunt, jejune, poor, waterless). (various references) неродючий (barren, fruitless, hidebound, jejune, nonbearing, out of heart). (various references) không m u mỡ (infecund), cằn cỗi (constricted, infecund, sterile). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | infecunda, infelix, infructuosus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Infertile" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: insertive, Intershield, Intertel, intertitles, nefertite. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "infertile" (pronounced i'nfer"tul) |
| 5 | -f er" t u l | fertile. |
| 4 | -er" t u l | hurtle, Myrtle, turtle. |
| 3 | -t u l | accidental, acquittal, anecdotal, artiodactyl, battle, beetle, belittle, betel, bicoastal, bottle, brattle, Bristol, brittle, brutal, butyl, Cantle, capital, Capitol, cattle, chattel, chortle, coastal, coincidental, committal, compartmental, congenital, consonantal, continental, crustal, crystal, dental, detrimental, developmental, digital, disgruntle, dismantle, distal, ductile, elemental, embattle, entitle, environmental, experimental, extramarital, fatal, fetal, fractal, frontal, fundamental, futile, genital, gentle, glottal, governmental, horizontal, hospital, hostel, hostile, immortal, immotile, incidental, incremental, infantile, instrumental, intercontinental, intergovernmental, judgmental, kettle, Kittel, Kittle, lentil, lintel, little, mantel, mantle, marital, mental, metal, mettle, monumental, mortal, motile, Natal, neonatal, nettle, noncommittal, nonfatal, nongovernmental, nonvolatile, occidental, occipital, orbital, oriental, ornamental, parental, parietal, pedestal, periodontal, petal, Pistil, pistol, pivotal, portal, postal, postnatal, Pottle, prattle, prefrontal, premarital, prenatal, projectile, quintal, rattle, rebuttal, recital, rectal, regimental, rental, resettle, scuttle, sentimental, settle, shuttle, skeletal, skittle, societal, spittle, startle, subtitle, subtle, supplemental, tactile, tattle, temperamental, throttle, title, tittle, tootle, total, transcendental, transcontinental, transmittal, unsentimental, unsettle, unsubtle, varietal, vegetal, versatile, vestal, vital, vittle, volatile, Whittle, Wintle. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: interfile. | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-f-i-i-l-n-r-t" | |
-1 letter: flintier. | |
-2 letters: fertile, firelit, lintier, niftier, niterie, nitrile. | |
-3 letters: entire, feirie, feline, ferine, ferlie, filter, finite, inlier, lefter, liefer, lierne, lifter, linier, linter, nitril, refelt, refile, refine, reflet, relent, relief, reline, retile, retine, telfer, tinier, triene, trifle. | |
-4 letters: elfin, elint, elite, enter, feint, filer, filet, finer, fleer, fleet, flier, flint, flirt, flite, inert, infer. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-f-i-i-l-n-r-t" | |
+1 letter: interfiled, interfiles. | |
+2 letters: friendliest, inferential, refiltering. | |
+3 letters: differential, electrifying, interfertile, unfertilized. | |
+4 letters: differentials, indifferently, inferentially, infertilities, ultrafeminine, unelectrified, unfriendliest. | |
+5 letters: antifederalist, antireflection, antireflective, differentiable, differentially, electrofishing, enforceability, federalization, interfaculties, interferential, interfertility, interinfluence, referentiality, reflectorizing, ultraefficient. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)49 6E 66 65 72 74 69 6C 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).. -. ..-. . .-. - .. .-.. . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001001 01101110 01100110 01100101 01110010 01110100 01101001 01101100 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)I n f e r t i l e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0049 006E 0066 0065 0072 0074 0069 006C 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)438072718486757871 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
