Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Realization of something desired or worked for; accomplishment.
  • noun Enjoyment derived from use or possession.
  • noun The condition of bearing fruit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A coming into fruit or fulfilment; attainment of anything desired; realization of results: as, the fruition of one's labors or hopes.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Use or possession of anything, especially such as is accompanied with pleasure or satisfaction; pleasure derived from possession or use.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The fulfillment of something worked for.
  • noun The enjoyment derived from a possession.
  • noun The condition of bearing fruit.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the condition of bearing fruit
  • noun enjoyment derived from use or possession
  • noun something that is made real or concrete

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English fruicioun, from Old French fruicion, from Late Latin fruitiō, fruitiōn-, enjoyment, from Latin fruitus, past participle of fruī, to enjoy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin fruī ("to enjoy").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Erroneously from fruit (though now standard usage)

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Examples

Comments

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  • ... and equally enjoying

    God-like fruition, quitted all to save

    A World from utter loss ...

    Milton, Paradise Lost III

    December 18, 2006

  • This changed its meaning in the nineteenth century. Although it is related to 'fruit', the ultimate root of both is Latin fru- "enjoy", and English 'fruition' originally meant "enjoyment". In the 1800s it shifted to its present meaning of "completion, fulfilment" in expressions such as 'come to fruition'.

    I think it is seldom used in the supposedly literal sense "fruiting", but this was presumably part of the bridging meaning: after your orchard fruits you have its fruition.

    December 24, 2008

  • “Some days passed before I could rid my thoughts of Thecla of certain impressions belonging to the false Thecla who had initiated me into the anacreontic diversions and fruitions of men and women.”

    —Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer

    May 16, 2010