sterile

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: ster=ile

CIDE DICTIONARY

sterile, a. [F. stérile, L. sterilis, akin to Gr. stereo`s stiff, solid, stei^ros barren, stei^ra a cow that has not calved, Goth. stairō, fem., barren. See Stare to gaze.].

•  Producing little or no crop; barren; unfruitful; unproductive; not fertile; as, sterile land; a sterile desert; a sterile year.  [1913 Webster]
•  Incapable of reproduction; unfitted for reproduction of offspring; not able to germinate or bear fruit; unfruitful; as, a sterile flower, which bears only stamens.  [1913 Webster]
•  Fig.: Barren of ideas; destitute of sentiment; as, a sterile production or author.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

sterile, adj.
1 not able to produce crop or fruit or (of an animal) young; barren.
2 unfruitful, unproductive (sterile discussions).
3 free from living micro-organisms etc.
4 lacking originality or emotive force; mentally barren.

Derivative

sterilely adv. sterility n.

Etymology

F st{eacute}rile or L sterilis

THESAURUS

sterile

abortive, acarpous, antiseptic, arid, aseptic, bare, barren, blah, blank, bloodless, boiled, bootless, celibate, characterless, childless, cold, colorless, counterproductive, dead, decontaminated, desert, desolate, disinfected, dismal, draggy, drained, drearisome, dreary, dried-up, dry, dryasdust, dull, dusty, effete, elephantine, empty, etiolated, exhausted, fade, fallow, fatuitous, fatuous, feckless, flat, fruitless, futile, gainless, gaunt, gelded, heavy, ho-hum, hollow, hygienic, impotent, inadequate, inane, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, inexcitable, infecund, infertile, inoperative, insipid, invalid, issueless, jejune, leached, leaden, lifeless, low-spirited, menopausal, noncreative, nonfertile, nonproducing, nonproductive, nonprolific, nonremunerative, nugacious, nugatory, of no force, otiose, pale, pallid, pasteurized, pedestrian, plodding, pointless, poky, ponderous, profitless, prophylactic, pure, rewardless, sanitary, sine prole, slow, solemn, spiritless, stale, sterilized, stiff, stodgy, stuffy, sucked dry, superficial, tasteless, tedious, teemless, unavailing, uncontaminated, uncreative, uncultivated, unfertile, unfruitful, uninfected, uninspired, uninventive, unlively, unplowed, unpolluted, unproductive, unprofitable, unprolific, unremunerative, unrewarding, unsown, untilled, useless, vain, vapid, virgin, waste, wasted, without issue, wooden, worn-out

ROGET THESAURUS

sterile

Unproductiveness

N unproductiveness, infertility, sterility, infecundity, masturbation, impotence, unprofitableness, waste, desert, Sahara, wild, wilderness, howling wilderness, unproductive, acarpous, inoperative, barren, addled, infertile, unfertile, unprolific, arid, sterile, unfruitful, infecund, sine prole, fallow, teemless, issueless, fruitless, unprofitable, null and void, of no effect.

Absence

N absence, inexistence, nonresidence, absenteeism, nonattendance, alibi, emptiness, void, vacuum, vacuity, vacancy, tabula rasa, exemption, hiatus, lipotype, truant, absentee, nobody, nobody present, nobody on earth, not a soul, ame qui vive, absent, not present, away, nonresident, gone, from home, missing, lost, wanting, omitted, nowhere to be found, inexistence, empty, void, vacant, vacuous, untenanted, unoccupied, uninhabited, tenantless, barren, sterile, desert, deserted, devoid, uninhabitable, without, minus, nowhere, elsewhere, neither here nor there, in default of, sans, behind one's back, the bird has flown, non est inventus, absence makes the heart grow fonder, absent in body but present in spirit, absento nemo ne nocuisse velit, Achilles absent was Achilles still, aux absents les os, briller par son absence, conspicuous by his absence, in the hope to meet shortly again and make our abs.