sterile
Americanadjective
-
free from living germs or microorganisms; aseptic.
Successful operations rely on timely delivery of the sterile surgical instruments needed for each procedure.
-
incapable of producing offspring; not producing offspring.
- Synonyms:
- unfruitful, infecund
- Antonyms:
- fertile
-
barren; not producing vegetation.
Attempts to cultivate the land have failed because of the sterile soil.
- Antonyms:
- fertile
-
Botany.
-
noting a plant in which reproductive structures fail to develop.
-
bearing no stamens or pistils.
-
-
not productive of results, ideas, etc.; fruitless.
-
lacking vitality, vibrancy, interest, etc..
Art can transform an otherwise sterile office into a happy, inspiring, and comforting space.
adjective
-
unable to produce offspring; infertile
-
free from living, esp pathogenic, microorganisms; aseptic
-
(of plants or their parts) not producing or bearing seeds, fruit, spores, stamens, or pistils
-
lacking inspiration or vitality; fruitless
-
economics (of gold) not being used to support credit creation or an increased money supply
-
Not able to produce offspring, seeds, or fruit; unable to reproduce.
-
Free from disease-causing microorganisms.
Other Word Forms
- half-sterile adjective
- nonsterile adjective
- nonsterilely adverb
- sterilely adverb
- sterileness noun
- sterility noun
- unsterile adjective
Etymology
Origin of sterile
First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin sterilis “barren, unfruitful”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some desks were buried under stacks of paper, others were as sterile as a surgeon’s operating table.
The idea is fairly simple: unleash sterile males so that they far outnumber wild ones — say, 10 to 1 or even 100 to 1.
From Los Angeles Times
An estimated 50% of sterile medical devices in the U.S. are treated with ethylene oxide.
From Los Angeles Times
The aesthetic favors deliberate roughness and mistakes over a sterile, polished sheen.
From Los Angeles Times
While the bots are getting slightly better at mimicking human cadences, AI-generated writing still reeks of the sterile laboratory where it originates.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
