— fer·til·i·ty noun
Synonyms
fecund, fruitful, luxuriant, productive, prolific, rich; also bearing, producing, yielding; abounding, abundant, bountiful; copious, plenteous, plentiful; blooming, bursting, swarming, teeming, thriving; creative, inventive, original
Antonyms
barren, infertile, sterile, unfruitful, unproductive
Since thesaurus information is relatively self-explanatory and there are numerous distinctive, and sometimes subtle, features of the dictionary, the focus of the following section, Using the Dictionary, is on the dictionary features.
While this work has been years in the making, drawing on the work and experience of the Merriam-Webster staff of professional lexicographers, we wish to thank those who have worked hard to produce this volume. Primary editors were Mary W. Cornog, Amy K. Harris Van Vranken, and Amy West. Additional editing was done by Jocelyn W. Franklin with Cynthia S. Ashby and James G. Lowe. Daniel B. Brandon, Jennifer N. Cislo, Ilya A. Davidovich, Mary M. Dunn, and E. Louise Langford provided further editorial contributions. This work was conceived by John M. Morse; Robert D. Copeland was general editor.
It was more than 150 years ago that Merriam-Webster published its first dictionary, and it has been 30 years since the company published its first thesaurus. In that time, Merriam-Webster's reputation as the premier American publisher of dictionaries, thesauruses, and other reference books has grown. This work continues the proud tradition of excellence.
Using the Dictionary
ENTRIES
A boldface letter or a combination of such letters, including punctuation marks and diacritics where needed, that is set flush with the left-hand margin is a main entry. The main entry may consist of letters set solid, of letters joined by a hyphen or a diagonal, or of letters separated by one or more spaces:
alone … adjective
avant–garde … noun
and/or … conjunction
assembly language … noun
The material in lightface type that follows each main entry on the same line and on succeeding lines presents information about the main entry.
The main entries follow one another in alphabetical order letter by letter: bill of attainder follows billion; Day of Atonement follows daylight saving time. Main entries containing an Arabic numeral are alphabetized as if the numeral were spelled out: 4-H comes between fourfold and Four Hundred; 3-D comes between three and three-dimensional. Those that often begin with the abbreviation St. in common usage have the abbreviation spelled out: Saint Valentine's Day. Main entries that begin with Mc are alphabetized just as they are spelled.
When one main entry has exactly the same written form as another, the two are distinguished by superscript numerals preceding each word:
1melt … verb
2melt noun
1pine … noun
2pine verb
Full words come before parts of words made up of the same letters; solid compounds come before hyphenated compounds; hyphenated compounds come before open compounds; and lowercase entries come before those with an initial capital:
2super … adjective
super- … prefix
run·down … noun
run–down … adjective
run down verb
dutch … adverb
Dutch … noun
The centered dots within entry words indicate division points at which a hyphen may be put at the end of a line of print or writing. Thus the noun cap·puc·ci·no may be ended on one line and continued on the next in this manner:
cap-
puccino
cappuc-
cino
cappucci-
no
Centered dots are not shown after a single initial letter or before a single terminal letter because typesetters seldom cut off a single letter:
abyss … noun
flighty … adjective
idea … noun
Nor are they usually shown at the second and succeeding