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sterile

[ster-il or, especially Brit., -ahyl]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

free from living germs or microorganisms; aseptic: sterile surgical instruments.

incapable of producing offspring; not producing offspring.

barren; not producing vegetation: sterile soil.

Botany.

noting a plant in which reproductive structures fail to develop.

bearing no stamens or pistils.

not productive of results, ideas, etc.; fruitless.

Origin:
1545–55; < Latin sterilis unfruitful

Related forms

ster·ile·ly, adverb

ste·ril·i·ty

[stuh-ril-i-tee] , ster·ile·ness, noun

an·ti·ste·ril·i·ty, adjective

half-ster·ile, adjective

non·ster·ile, adjective

EXPAND

non·ster·ile·ly, adverb

non·ste·ril·i·ty, noun

un·ster·ile, adjective

COLLAPSE

Can be confused: 1. impetus, impotence, sterility; 2. impotence, sterility, sterilized.

Synonyms
2. infecund, unfruitful.

Antonyms
2, 3. fertile.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To sterile

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Sterile is always a great word to know.

So is zedonk. Does it mean:

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Example Sentences

They propose that physicians, if it is within their power, should enable sterile couples to bear their own children.

Then he slips on a sterile gown and gloves and steps into the elderly.

Some can be polluted and alive, others spotless and sterile.

EXPAND

They propose that physicians, if it is within their power, should enable sterile couples to bear their own children.

Then he slips on a sterile gown and gloves and steps into the elderly.

Some can be polluted and alive, others spotless and sterile.

Hybrids that aren't sterile may have the opportunity to become a full-blown new species.

There was also the sterile blowfly program with the release of millions of sterile male blowflies.

Naturally occurring hybrids can also make sterile fruit.

Be sure to fill them with a rich, sterile potting mix.

Until recently, scientists believed that healthy lungs were sterile.

Unlike sterile fruit flies or malathion bait, nematodes do not have to be spread over large areas.

Auschwitz has been made into a somewhat sterile monument, and this sticks a thumb in the eye of that sentiment.

Then sterile couples and post-menopausal women should not be allowed to wed.

They grew the plant in a sterile liquid, then examined the compounds its roots released into the liquid.

People are already getting sick from being too sterile.

Their styles are remarkably similar–birds propped on tree limbs with sterile white backdrops.

Sterile fronds are erect, up more add to my plant list.

Lambs born by caesarian were reared in a sterile environment.

In all these procedures, sterile needles and instruments are used.

Somehow they are dead and sterile compared to the ocean with its waves and tides.

When the tins are opened they are no longer sterile.

These mice had been bred in a completely sterile environment and lacked almost all immunity to disease.

At first glance, the mingling might seem fairly disastrous: first-generation female offspring are usually completely sterile.

And the product is hot enough to be sterile without any processing.

The messy melodrama of life-all the failed diets and fading friendships-becomes a sterile cartoon.

Then, collect a sample of urine in a clean or sterile container.

Breast milk isn't a biohazard, but that still leaves open the issue of whether it's a problem because it's not sterile.

But, if pilots were not screened, they could collude with someone else to bring forbidden items behind the sterile area.

Sterile towels covered his face and entire torso except for a large rectangle perfectly framing the incision area.

Gosh, perhaps they should use sterile coffee filters instead.

The trip in space shortened the moths' development cycle and left them sterile.

For too many, the end of life is a nightmare of lonely hospital rooms and sterile combat against unstoppable disease.

The birthing rooms are certainly more sterile than the average home.

It's a gender-denying sterile life-negating relationship.

The argument about self interest is a totally sterile one anyway.

Hormone-suppressed foxes, daughterless fish, sterile rabbits.

The package is absolutely safe for use even in major injuries, being absolutely sterile.

Trying to produce food in a total sterile environment is impossible.

Raise a human baby from birth in a colorless, spherical, seamless sterile room for a couple decades.

Purportedly, the drug is ordered online and comes in a white powder that is mixed with sterile water.

The problem stems from the paradigm of the soul-killing sterile boardroom.

The characters and enemies aren't nearly as interesting, the ambience positively sterile.

The other case-modification hacks also are fun as they show what can be done to spice up a boring, sterile computer case.

Before too long, the oceans would be barren and sterile.

The doctors' offices here are filled not with the sterile stuff of most.

The others mated with beetles rendered sterile by irradiation.

In addition, mating with sterile males did not affect female egg-laying, nor did it stimulate females to mate a second time.

As a result, the driveline must be redressed every day using sterile gloves and gauze.

The mix is delivered to hospitals in containers presumed to be sterile and has a limited shelf life.

France is hamstrung by a sterile debate between left and right over policing.

Green used a sterile medium rather than potting soil to avoid staining the wall.

In addition, customers may not bring liquids and gels purchased inside the sterile area onboard the aircraft.

Critical thinking is sterile without the capacity for empathy and comprehension that stretches the self.

Debating the merits of his work is easy, and somewhat sterile.

Cover the outside of the ear with a sterile dressing shaped to the contour of the ear, and tape it loosely in place.

It's a surgical cutting tool that stays sterile anywhere, runs off batteries and seals wounds using a beam of hot ionized gas.

Once the needle is in the joint, fluid is drawn through it into a sterile syringe.

To monitor how well the program is working, the sterile bugs are fed a red dye.

Programmers may work to tight deadlines in sterile corporate settings and within carefully drawn guidelines.

Wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water and apply a loose, sterile dressing.

The child has abnormally small testes, which remain small, and he grows up to be sterile.

The man who created the basis for sterile operations.

Health officials say that urine is sterile in healthy people and that the urine was so diluted it posed little health risk.

How could there be given an intellectually sterile environment where any deviation from the norm is considered heresy.

Gone is the sterile house of pain that used to be identified with dental offices.

It is also typical that gross and sterile generalisations are applied without any first hand experience of the society.

Its hallmarks are radioactive colors, corrupted sterile and spiritual imagery, and sheer painterly bravura.

Because of that, the driveline must be redressed every day using sterile gloves and gauze.

Doctors cancel surgery because they lack sterile towels and sheets, the commission said.

Innovation comes from a chaotic process not from a sterile centrally organized one.

Visits to his sterile hospital room have been tightly limited because of a fear of infection.

As he began unwrapping a sterile needle, he shifted his weight from one foot to another and groaned slightly.

COLLAPSE

Infertility 101

Posted March 12, 2009

A basic guide to infertility.

Read more at HealthCentral.com

Collins

World English Dictionary

sterile (ˈstɛraɪl)

—*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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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

EXPAND

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.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

sterile ster·ile (stěr'əl, -īl')
adj.