sterile
Meanings
Adjective
- incapable of reproducing
Adjective Satellite
- free of or using methods to keep free of pathological microorganisms
- "a sterile operating area"
- deficient in originality or creativity; lacking powers of invention
- "a sterile ideology lacking in originality"
Adj
- Unable to reproduce (or procreate).
- Terse; lacking sentiment or emotional stimulation, as in a manner of speaking.
- Fruitless, uninspiring, or unproductive.
- Germless; free from all living or viable microorganisms.
- Permanently uninhabitable (as in a planet like Earth) to all life, including even microbes.
- Free from dangerous objects, as a zone in an airport that can be only be entered via a security checkpoint.
- Of weapons: foreign-made and untraceable to the United States.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle French stérile, from Latin sterilis (“barren, futile”). See also Ancient Greek στεῖρα (steîra).
Synonyms
aseptic, barren, fruitless, infertile, sterile, unfertile, unimaginative, uninspired, uninventive
Antonyms
fecund, fertile, fruitful, non-sterile, nonsterile, potent, productive, unsterile
Scrabble Score: 7
sterile is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordsterile is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
sterile is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary