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Synonyms for sterile

Grammar : Adj
Spell : ster-il or, esp. British, -ahyl
Phonetic Transcription : ˈstɛr ɪl or, esp. British, -aɪl

Top 10 synonyms for sterile
Other synonyms for the word sterile

Définition 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

Antonyms for sterile

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