adjective

• 1Producing or able to produce large amounts of goods, crops, or other commodities.

  ‘the most productive employees’

  More example sentences

  • ‘In today's tight labor markets, both public and private employers will presumably benefit from being able to keep productive older employees on the job longer.’
  • ‘Deforestation and overgrazing destroy productive land, while acid rain damages crops.’
  • ‘The World Wildlife Fund has released a report that assesses our ecological footprint, or the amount of productive land and sea needed to sustain current lifestyles.’
  • ‘A retired North Yorkshire farmer has invented a device which could help reduce flooding risks and pollution - while keeping arable land fertile and productive.’
  • ‘This makes soil more productive and able to support bigger and better crops at the lowest possible economic cost to farmers.’
  • ‘They can be grown on land that's less productive for traditional crops.’
  • ‘Does Clark's property system preserve incentives to make land productive?’
  • ‘And savvy employers have started to realize that a happy employee is a productive one.’
  • ‘Farmers who are able to be productive and prove useful to society will find us cooperative.’
  • ‘The people who work with me are able to be more productive because I put a little less baggage in their way than before.’
  • ‘Some have managed to take an interest in their land and make it productive, but many have simply reaped the standing crop and then left the land derelict.’
  • ‘Seems like depression does benefit me, I am more productive at work.’
  • ‘A country's most productive force is its diverse strata of human resources.’
  • ‘In a free market, employers want the most productive work force.’
  • ‘In fact, as space grew, the industry became less productive.’
  • ‘My dad ran his coal mine so as to make it as productive as he possibly could.’
  • ‘Of course, certain institutions are necessary to become economically productive too, but these are not necessarily political.’
  • ‘Malaysia's young, educated, and highly productive workforce remains one of the country's key attributes.’
  • ‘Settling in South Dakota, Martin Eden initially focuses on transforming the prairie into productive farmland.’
  • ‘For precision organic farming to work, we need to keep our farmers productive and unharmed.’
  • ‘White farmers would sell their land to the black community, and then help keep it productive.’

  Synonyms

  fertile, fruitful, rich, fecund, high-yielding

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1Relating to or engaged in the production of goods, crops, or other commodities.
     ‘the country's productive capacity’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Investment in productive capacity was the prominent transmission mechanism of finance to the real economy.’
     • ‘Socialism has a comparative advantage in the area of productive efficiency.’
     • ‘While they generate a return, financial assets are not themselves productive capital engaged in the actual extraction of surplus value from the working class.’
     • ‘Overall market confidence and productive capacity can be destroyed quickly, leading to net loss of investment, employment, and output.’
     • ‘Classifying soil according to its productive capacity has some precedence in most parts of East Africa where property rates are employed.’
     • ‘Debate has ensued regarding the effects of these changes upon the productive efficiency of universities, and upon the quality of their outcomes.’
     • ‘If those billions of borrowed euro were diverted into productive rather than unproductive capacity what would happen?’
     • ‘Very fundamentally Marx defines productive labor by its capacity to generate capital in the form of a surplus-value.’
     • ‘Good governance is lacking in most countries that are unable to promote job creation, engage in productive public spending and to stimulate economic growth.’
     • ‘Economic resiliency, productive capacity, labor talent, every one of the economist's buzzwords plays a role in war.’
     • ‘The companies face increasingly cutthroat competition and a growing glut in productive capacity both in Japan and globally.’
     • ‘The productive capacity of the fumigated crops not destroyed is revitalized through the intensive use of fertilizers.’
     • ‘Put that money into productive capacity, and investing in our future and investing in cutting edge technology.’
     • ‘In reality, the strength of an economy is determined by the efficiency of its productive sector, not the appetite of consumers.’
     • ‘Mobility increases the amount of productive work that each employee can deliver.’
     • ‘At the analytical starting point, every productive process employs the primary inputs of labor and land as Henry George defined them.’
     • ‘Only by increasing the supply of land available for productive use could the landless be given greater access to it.’
     • ‘The contest between capital and labour over the fruits of economically productive activity remains the front line struggle.’
     • ‘For Smith, wealth was productive capacity, not the accumulation of precious metals.’
     • ‘I describe most of my recent productive activity as making sculptural or object paintings.’
  2. 1.2Achieving a significant amount or result.
     ‘a long and productive career’
     More example sentences

     • ‘the therapy sessions became more productive’
     • ‘Freelancing, even after a highly successful and productive career, was not much better unless one was a ‘celebrity’ writer and columnist.’
     • ‘This unlikely though productive pairing has resulted in what's being touted as Montreal's best outdoor skate park.’
     • ‘Moral is low, egos are high and as a result it's not productive for the common good of the whole community.’
     • ‘The most productive route to achieving a significant across-the-board raise for architects is for us to get involved in the process of developing and building.’
     • ‘As sites of considerable productive value and significant social debate, I believe it is important to begin with an introduction to the gardens themselves.’
     • ‘The entire developing world can't be invited to the G - 8 table with the expectation that a productive conversation will result.’
     • ‘There are no female figures in Swann's Way who achieve as artistically productive or as spiritually rewarding an independence as that of Lily Briscoe.’
     • ‘According to them, progress of the productive forces inevitably results in the stultification of the masses, in cultural decline, and finally in a new kind of barbarism.’
     • ‘My patrol had been pleasantly productive this evening, resulting in the apprehension of four baddies and being checked out by no less than two women.’
     • ‘That choice is ‘good,’ meaning essentially, productive of the desired result.’
     • ‘How, then, are we to get the student to learn the many behaviors that will provide the necessary skills to achieve a productive life?’
     • ‘This, however, does not mean that achieving a productive scholarly interactivity in a web journal is either easy or straightforward.’
     • ‘The result of that is productive working relationships - something that party would not know anything about.’
     • ‘Shaw and his staff proved to two national banks that the school was more productive, resulting in major gifts.’
     • ‘The extensive preparation phase results in very productive enactment and analysis phases.’
     • ‘So enclosing the commons is needed to avoid ruin, and to promote productive investments in the land.’
     • ‘He hasn't been able to do anything productive since he left us and he came back just in time for the birth.’
     • ‘Yet, with help, many improve over time and are eventually able to lead productive lives.’
     • ‘The South Zone hunter who juggles the options should be able to enjoy productive hunts during the three-day opening weekend.’
     • ‘The Angels haven't had a productive leadoff hitter since Tony Phillips in 1997.’
     Synonyms

     prolific, inventive, creative

     useful, constructive, profitable, fruitful, gainful, valuable, effective, worthwhile, beneficial, helpful, rewarding, gratifying

     View synonyms
  3. 1.3productive ofpredicative Producing or giving rise to.
     ‘the hotel was not productive of amusing company’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Four days prior to admission, she developed a cough productive of whitish sputum.’
     • ‘As has been indicated, life on the frontier is productive of individualism.’
     • ‘Mines in the Pangaeum mountain range were extremely productive of silver and gold.’
     • ‘Once this kind of trust is established, the relationship between the consumer and the medical device company can be productive of real value.’
     • ‘Leaders are investing billions of dollars to make our schools more purposeful, more accountable, and more productive of powerful learning.’
  4. 1.4Linguistics (of a prefix, suffix, or other linguistic unit) currently used in forming new words or expressions.
     ‘many suffixes are common and productive’
     More example sentences

     • ‘It takes a higher degree of competence, they say, to combine words properly in productive use.’
     • ‘So, Eskimoan languages are really extraordinary in their productive word-building capability, for any root you might pick.’
     • ‘The situation characterizes the less productive affixes, such as noun-forming ity or th.’
     • ‘Students used the highly productive suffix er rather than the less productive suffix ant to convey an agentive meaning.’
     • ‘A prefix is productive when it contributes to the meaning of a word and can be added freely to other words.’

• 2Medicine
  (of a cough) that raises mucus from the respiratory tract.

  ‘He had a sick contact with an upper respiratory infection and productive cough for the past two weeks.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘A 55 year old man presented to his general practitioner with a productive cough.’
  • ‘Signs of recurrent infection or pneumonia with productive cough, fever, and hemoptysis dominate.’
  • ‘Chest infections, productive cough, dyspnea, wheezing, and hemoptysis are common.’
  • ‘Lynne, my wife, had a persistent productive cough, fever, and malaise.’