stark

¹ American  

[stahrk] / stɑrk /

adjective

starker, starkest

1. sheer, utter, downright, or complete.

   This plan is stark madness!

2. harsh, grim, or desolate, as a view, place, etc..

   Her photos capture the stark desert landscape.

3. extremely simple or severe.

   With its stark interior and rough ride, the car scores low in our luxury car ranking.

4. bluntly or sternly plain; not softened or glamorized.

   He panicked suddenly at the stark reality of the approaching deadline.

5. distinct, sharp, or vivid.

   The thriving community gardens stood in stark contrast to vacant land and abandoned buildings.

6. stiff or rigid in substance, muscles, etc.

7. rigid in death.

8. Archaic.  strong; powerful; massive or robust.

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adverb

1. utterly, absolutely, or quite.

   stark mad.

2. Chiefly Scot. and North England.  in a stark manner; stoutly or vigorously.

Stark ² American  

[stahrk, shtahrk] / stɑrk, ʃtɑrk /

noun

1. Harold Raynsford 1880–1972, U.S. admiral.

2. Johannes 1874–1957, German physicist: Nobel Prize 1919.

3. John, 1728–1822, American Revolutionary War general.

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stark ¹ British  

/ stɑːk /

adjective

1. (usually prenominal) devoid of any elaboration; blunt

   the stark facts

2. grim; desolate

   a stark landscape

3. (usually prenominal) utter; absolute

   stark folly

4. archaic  severe; violent

5. archaic  rigid, as in death (esp in the phrases stiff and stark, stark dead )

6. short for stark-naked

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adverb

1. completely

   stark mad

Stark ² British  

noun

1. Dame Freya ( Madeline ) (ˈfreɪə). 1893–1993, British traveller and writer, whose many books include The Southern Gates of Arabia (1936), Beyond Euphrates (1951), and The Journey's Echo (1963)

2. Johannes (joˈhanəs). 1874–1957, German physicist, who discovered the splitting of the lines of a spectrum when the source of light is subjected to a strong electrostatic field ( Stark effect , 1913): Nobel prize for physics 1919

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Related Words

See austere, bare ¹.

Other Word Forms

• starkly adverb
• starkness noun

Etymology

Origin of stark

First recorded before 900; (adjective) Middle English; Old English stearc “stiff, firm”; cognate with German stark “strong”; akin to Old Norse sterkr “strong”; akin to starch, stare; (adverb) Middle English sterke, derivative of the adjective

Example Sentences

But it was also a season of stark contrasts, with periods of relative calm and bursts of intense activity.

From BBC

The attendance was another big talking point before the game and there were stark evidence of empty seats around the Principality Stadium in the crowd of 50,112.

From BBC

The turnabout has been particularly stark with stocks and digital tokens with direct associations to the president and his family.

From The Wall Street Journal

Miles’ case underscores a stark contradiction: people whose ancestors inhabited this land for millennia can still be treated as outsiders, illustrating how legal recognition and federal enforcement often fail to align in practice.

From Salon

The backdrop of skyscrapers and shiny office towers was a stark reminder of the gulf separating rich and poor in South Africa, which the World Bank ranks as the most unequal country on the planet.

From Barron's

Related Words

• austere
• bleak
• depressing
• desolate
• grim
• harsh