proliferous

American  

[pruh-lif-er-uhs] / prəˈlɪf ər əs /

adjective

1. proliferating.

2. Botany.

   1. producing new individuals by budding or the like.

   2. producing an organ or shoot from an organ that is itself normally the last, as a shoot or a new flower from the midst of a flower.

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proliferous British  

/ prəˈlɪfərəs /

adjective

1. (of plants) producing many side branches or offshoots and normally reproducing vegetatively by buds or by plantlets produced in the inflorescence

2. (of certain animals) reproducing by means of buds, etc

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Other Word Forms

• nonproliferous adjective
• unproliferous adjective

Etymology

Origin of proliferous

1645–55; < Medieval Latin prōlifer bearing offspring + -ous. See prolicide, -ferous

Example Sentences

We’ve all known how good Cranston is from his work on “Breaking Bad,” the cable drama that set a standard this new proliferous streaming era has had difficulty matching.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 20, 2018

Meanwhile a wife had been found for him, carefully chosen for her robust health and the proliferous reputation of her ancestors.

From Time Magazine Archive

Some, like the proliferous Valentino�who operates nearly 80 retail outlets round the world�have been forced to franchise a number of their shops, but keep a firm hand on their agents.

From Time Magazine Archive

Seringe figures a proliferous flower of Arabis alpina with two sepals only, and a similar occurrence has been noticed in Diplotaxis tenuifolia.

From Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants by Masters, Maxwell T.

In some of the instances of so-called proliferous pears the carpels would seem to be entirely absent, and the dilated portion of the axis to be alone repeated.

From Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants by Masters, Maxwell T.