productive

7 definitions • 14 examples

resulting in or providing a large amount or supply of something:

In order to turn the deserts into fertile and productive land, engineers built an 800-mile canal.

He had an amazingly productive five years in which he managed to write four novels.

having positive results:

We had a very productive meeting - I felt we solved lots of problems.

Theirs was a very productive partnership.

relating to the ability to produce language, rather than just understand it:

The English-speaking children's productive vocabularies ranged from 2 to 31 words.

causing or providing a good result or a large amount of something:

We had a very productive meeting – a lot of problems were solved.

What was once desert has become productive farmland.

producing a large number of goods, crops, profit, etc. or doing a lot of work:

productive farmland/sector/economy The only remaining option is to switch underemployed workers from agriculture to more productive sectors.

productive worker/employee/citizen The idea was to reward France's highly productive workers with shorter working hours.

achieving good results:

The negotiations were reported to have been "very productive."

a productive day's work

a productive meeting/conversation/discussion You can't have a productive discussion if people aren't listening to each other.

relating to production of goods:

There is a great demand for water for productive purposes.

The diagram shows the productive structure of the firm.