Meaning & use
fertilizer
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
A substance added to soil or plants to supply nutrients and improve growth.
Grammar: Can be used as a mass noun (add fertilizer) or as a countable noun when talking about types or bags (a chemical fertilizer, several fertilizers).
Patterns
- add fertilizer to something
- a bag of fertilizer
- organic fertilizer
- chemical fertilizer
The gardener spread fertilizer around the base of the rose bushes.
This fertilizer contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Organic fertilizers such as compost release nutrients more slowly.
Word forms
| plural | fertilizers |
|---|
Common combinations
- organic fertilizer
- They use only organic fertilizer on the vegetable plot.
- chemical fertilizer
- Chemical fertilizer can raise crop yields quickly but may damage soil over time.
- apply fertilizer
- Apply fertilizer in early spring before the plants start growing.
- nitrogen fertilizer
- Nitrogen fertilizer encourages leafy green growth.
- a bag of fertilizer
- He carried a heavy bag of fertilizer to the greenhouse.
Synonyms and how they differ
- manure
- Manure is animal waste used as fertilizer; it is one kind of organic fertilizer, not a general word for all fertilizers.
- compost
- Compost is decayed plant material used to enrich soil; it is a natural fertilizer but not a manufactured product.
- plant food
- Plant food is a friendly, everyday term for fertilizer sold for houseplants; fertilizer is the standard term in farming and science.
Word family
- fertilize verb
- To add fertilizer to soil or plants, or to join a sex cell with another.
- fertilization noun
- The process of adding fertilizer, or the joining of sex cells.
- fertile adjective
- Able to produce good crops or young.
- fertility noun
- The quality of soil that produces well, or the ability to produce young.
Commonly confused: fertilizer or fertilization? fertilizer or pesticide?
fertilizer vs fertilization
Fertilization is the process; fertilizer is the substance you apply.
fertilizer vs pesticide
A pesticide kills pests such as insects; a fertilizer feeds plants. They are used for different purposes.
Practice
Which sentence uses fertilizer correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option 0 correctly uses fertilizer as a substance added to soil. Option 1 confuses it with fertilization, the biological process. Option 2 confuses it with pesticide or herbicide, which kill pests or weeds. Option 3 again confuses it with fertilization.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fertilizer”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.