sterile
Use Sterile in a sentence
ɪl adjective
1.
free from living germs or microorganisms; aseptic: sterile surgical instruments.
2.
incapable of producing offspring; not producing offspring.
3.
barren; not producing vegetation: sterile soil.
4.
Botany.
a.
noting a plant in which reproductive structures fail to develop.
b.
bearing no stamens or pistils.
5.
not productive of results, ideas, etc.; fruitless.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To Sterile
00:10
Sterile
is always a great word to know.
So is ort. Does it mean:
| a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
Collins
World English Dictionary
sterile (ˈstɛraɪl) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —adj | |
| 1. | unable to produce offspring; infertile |
| 2. | free from living, esp pathogenic, microorganisms; aseptic |
| 3. | (of plants or their parts) not producing or bearing seeds, fruit, spores, stamens, or pistils |
| 4. | lacking inspiration or vitality; fruitless |
| 5. | (US) economics (of gold) not being used to support credit creation or an increased money supply |
| [C16: from Latin sterilis] | |
| 'sterilely | |
| —adv | |
| sterility | |
| —n | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
sterile
1426, "barren" (implied in sterility), from M.Fr. stérile "not producing fruit," from L. sterilis "barren, unproductive," from PIE *ster- "sterile, barren" originally "stiff, rigid" (cf. Gk. steresthai "be deprived of," steira "sterile," stereos "firm, solid, stiff, hard;" Skt. starih "a barren
cow;" O.C.S. sterica "a barren cow;" Goth. stairo "barren;" O.N. stirtla "a barren cow"). See torpor. Originally in Eng. with ref. to soil; of females, from 1535. The sense of "sterilized" is first recorded 1877. Sterilize "destroy the fertility of" is from 1695 (in ref. to soil); of living things from 1828. Meaning "render free of microorganisms" is from 1878. Sterilization is from 1874.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary
sterile ster·ile (stěr'əl, -īl')
adj.
Not producing or incapable of producing offspring.
Free from all live bacteria or other microorganisms and their spores.
ster'ile·ness or ste·ril'i·ty (stə-rĭl'ĭ-tē) n.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
sterile (stěr'əl, stěr'īl') Pronunciation Key
sterility noun (stə-rĭl'ĭ-tē) |
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Example sentences
Then, collect a sample of urine in a clean or sterile container.
Its hallmarks are radioactive colors, corrupted sterile and spiritual imagery, and sheer painterly bravura.
Before too long, the oceans would be barren and sterile.
People are already getting sick from being too sterile.
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