productivity
n.-
1 work efficiency (n.) B2 Upper Intermediatethe rate at which a person or company does useful work.
the effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input.
ExampleThe new software helped the team increase their productivity by finishing tasks faster.
ExampleEconomists are concerned that stagnant productivity growth across the manufacturing sector could lead to long-term wage suppression.
UsageUsually uncountable; often used with verbs like 'increase', 'boost', or 'improve'.
- idleness
- inefficiency
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2 agriculture (n.) C1 Advanced Academic Sciencethe amount of crops grown on a specific area of land.
the yield or output of crops per unit of land area, often used to assess soil quality or farming techniques.
ExampleUsing better fertilizer can improve the productivity of the soil.
ExampleThe study examined how climate change affects the agricultural productivity of sub-Saharan regions over a ten-year period.
- barrenness
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3 linguistics (n.) C2 Proficiency Academic Technical Sciencehow easily a language rule can be used to make new words.
the capacity of a grammatical pattern or affix to be used by speakers to create new linguistic forms.
ExampleThe suffix '-ness' has high productivity because we can add it to many adjectives to make nouns.
ExampleMorphological productivity varies significantly between different affixes, with some remaining active while others become entirely fossilized.
Teacher's tipThis is a highly specialized term in linguistics; in general conversation, use 'flexibility' or 'creativity' instead.
- generativity
From productive + -ity.