sterile

See also: stérile

English

Etymology

From Middle French stérile, from Latin sterilis (“barren, futile”). See also Ancient Greek στεῖρα (steîra).

Pronunciation

Adjective

sterile (comparative more sterile, superlative most sterile)

  1. (not comparable) Unable to reproduce (or procreate).
    • 1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. Or, The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically Considered. Chapter V.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, or, A Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urnes Lately Found in Norfolk. Together with The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mystically Considered. With Sundry Observations, London: Printed for Hen[ry] Brome at the Signe of the Gun in Ivy-lane, OCLC 48702491; reprinted as Hydriotaphia (The English Replicas), New York, N.Y.: Payson & Clarke Ltd., 1927, OCLC 78413388, page 192:
      According to that Cabaliſticall Dogma: If Abram had not had this Letter [i.e., ה‎ (he)] added unto his Name he had remained fruitleſſe, and without the power of generation: […] So that being ſterill before, he received the power of generation from that meaſure and manſion in the Archetype; and was made conformable unto Binah.
  2. (figuratively) Terse; lacking sentiment or emotional stimulation, as in a manner of speaking.
  3. (figuratively) Fruitless, uninspiring, or unproductive.
  4. Germless; free from all living or viable microorganisms.
    a sterile kitchen table
  5. free from dangerous objects, as a zone in an airport that can be only be entered via a security checkpoint

Synonyms

Translations

Anagrams

German

Adjective

sterile

  1. inflected form of steril

Italian

Adjective

sterile (masculine and feminine plural sterili)

  1. sterile, barren, unprolific, infertile
  2. sterile, sterilized (medicine)
  3. vain, pointless
  4. unproductive

Latin

Adjective

sterile

  1. nominative neuter singular of sterilis
  2. accusative neuter singular of sterilis
  3. vocative neuter singular of sterilis

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

sterile

  1. definite singular and plural of steril

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

sterile

  1. definite singular and plural of steril
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