Antonyms for sterile

Grammar : Adj

Spell : ster-il or, esp. British, -ahyl

Phonetic Transcription : ˈstɛr ɪl or, esp. British, -aɪl

Definition of sterile

Origin : early 15c., "barren" (implied in sterility), from Middle French stérile "not producing fruit," from Latin sterilis "barren, unproductive," from PIE *ster- "sterile, barren" originally "stiff, rigid" (cf. Greek steresthai "be deprived of," steira "sterile," stereos "firm, solid, stiff, hard;" Sanskrit starih "a barren cow;" Old Church Slavonic sterica "a barren cow;" Gothic stairo "barren;" Old Norse stirtla "a barren cow"). See torpor. Originally in English with reference to soil; of females, from 1530s. The sense of "sterilized" is first recorded 1877.

adj unproductive, clean

Example sentences :

It occasionally happens that the gills are sterile and remain white.
Extract from : « The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise » by M. E. Hard

My hands were shaking as I took a sterile slide and pricked my finger.
Extract from : « Competition » by James Causey

But a volcanic eruption is sterile, the ruin of the fertile ground.
Extract from : « Under Western Eyes » by Joseph Conrad

His blood flows through him, a muddy stream of sterile water.
Extract from : « Common Science » by Carleton W. Washburne

In a few cases a sterile variety is described as the male and a fertile as the female.
Extract from : « The Legacy of Greece » by Various

His small farm was sterile, and yielded grudgingly its annual crops.
Extract from : « The Young Miner » by Horatio Alger, Jr.

For example, though all our Finches can breed together, the hybrids are all sterile.
Extract from : « Evolution in Modern Thought » by Ernst Haeckel

Berlin is situated in a sandy, sterile country; so to say, in a desert.
Extract from : « The Arena » by Various

There was about an acre of land, rocky and sterile, attached to it.
Extract from : « The Young Acrobat of the Great North American Circus » by Horatio Alger Jr.

And yet, thought the son, what an empty, sterile life it had been after all.
Extract from : « Captain Mansana and Mother's Hands » by Bjrnstjerne Bjrnson

Synonyms for sterile

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019