Reproduction

How to spell reproduction

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce reproduction

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reproduction mean?

1. nounThe biological process by which organisms produce new individuals of the same kind.
2. nounA copy or imitation of an original work, image, or sound.

Reproduction in a sentence

• The biology lecture covered plant reproduction in great detail.

• The poster was a cheap reproduction of a famous painting.

• Warmer water can disrupt the reproduction of many fish species.

• The museum sells a faithful reproduction of the original manuscript.

Where does reproduction come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb producere, which literally meant 'to lead forward' or 'to bring forth', from pro 'forward' and ducere 'to lead'. The prefix re-, meaning 'again', was added to express the idea of bringing something forth once more, whether a copy or a new generation of living things. The compound took shape in French as reproduction in the seventeenth century, originally in scientific writing about how nature renews and copies itself, and English adopted it in the early 1600s. It first carried the sense of biological generation, the making of new offspring, and only later widened to mean any faithful copy of an artwork, sound, or document. The same ducere root that means 'to lead' still echoes through relatives such as 'conduct', 'produce', and 'introduce', which is a useful reminder that the middle of the word is spelled produc, not produk.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• produc- (from Latin producere: to bring forth)
• -tion (noun of action)