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productive

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *per- der. ?
Proto-Indo-European *per- der. ?
Proto-Indo-European *pér
Proto-Indo-European *-o
Proto-Indo-European *pró
Proto-Indo-European *pro-
Proto-Italic *pro-
Latin prō-
Proto-Indo-European *dewk-
Proto-Indo-European *-ti
Proto-Indo-European *déwkti
Proto-Italic *doukō
Latin dūcō
Latin prōdūcō
Proto-Indo-European *-wós
Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder.
Latin -īvus
Late Latin prōductīvus bor.
English productive

    Borrowed from Late Latin productivus , equivalent to product +‎ -ive .

    Pronunciation

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    Adjective

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    productive (comparative more productive, superlative most productive)

    1. Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile.
    2. Yielding good or useful results; constructive.
    3. Of, or relating to the creation of goods or services.
    4. (linguistics , of an affix or word construction rule) Consistently applicable to any of an open set of words.
      • 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 138:
        Moreover, this relationship is a productive one, in the sense that when new Adjectives are created (e.g. ginormous concocted out of gigantic and enormous), then the corresponding Adverb form (in this case ginormously) can also be used. And in those exceptional cases where Adverbs do not end in -ly, they generally have the same form as the corresponding Adjective, as with hard, fast, etc.
      • 2026 April, Olha Matviyas, Victoria Rokoshevs’ka, Yulia Leshchyshyn, "THE MOST PRODUCTIVE PREFIXES IN ENGLISH MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY", in The Future of Science, Technology and Economy‎[1] , archived from the original on 8 July 2026, page 275:
        In practice, a productive prefix yields many attested words (especially new coinages) without loss of meaning. For example, re- ("again") is highly productive (rebuild, rethink), whereas other prefixes are relatively less so.
    5. (medicine ) Of a cough, producing mucus or sputum from the respiratory tract.
    6. (medicine ) Of inflammation, producing new tissue.
    7. (set theory ) A type of set of natural numbers, related to mathematical logic; a set S is productive if there exists a total recursive function f such that ∀x∈N,Wx⊆S⇒f(x)∈A∖Wx, where Wx is a recursive function whose Gödel number is x.
      a productive set

    Usage notes

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    In English, the plural suffix "-es" is productive because it can be appended to an open set of words (singular nouns ending in sibilants). Thus, if a new word with that pattern becomes an English noun (e.g. *examplex), it would have a default plural (e.g. *examplexes) because "-es" is productive.

    Synonyms

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    Antonyms

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    Derived terms

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    Translations

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    capable of producing something
    yielding good or useful results; constructive
    of, or relating to the creation of goods or services
    linguistics: consistently applicable to any of an open set of words
    medicine: producing mucus or sputum
    medicine: producing new tissue
    in set theory
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    References

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    French

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    Adjective

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    productive

    1. feminine singular of productif

    Latin

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    Pronunciation

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    Adjective

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    prōductīve

    1. vocative masculine singular of prōductīvus

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