sterile
pronunciation
How to pronounce sterile in British English:
UK [ˈsteraɪl]
How to pronounce sterile in American English:
US [ˈsterəl]
-
- Adjective:
- incapable of reproducing
- free of or using methods to keep free of pathological microorganisms
- deficient in originality or creativity; lacking powers of invention
Word Origin
- sterile
- sterile: [16] Sterile is a word of ancient ancestry, which goes right back to the prehistoric Indo- European base *ster- (source also of Greek stériphos and Gothic stairō ‘infertile’). The Latin descendant of the base was sterilis, acquired by English via French stérile.
- sterile (adj.)
- mid-15c., "barren," from Middle French stérile "not producing fruit," from Latin sterilis "barren, unproductive, unfruitful; unrequited; unprofitable," from PIE *ster- (1) "stiff, rigid, firm, strong" (see stereo-). Also see torpor. Originally in English with reference to soil; of persons (chiefly females), from 1530s. The sense of "sterilized, free from living germs" is first recorded 1877.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Scientists used to think breast milk was sterile , like urine .
- 2. Her husband had contracted venereal disease before their marriage , ms. pakula writes , and was probably sterile .
- 3. History is a sterile earth where heather does not grow .
- 4. The uterus is a sterile environment .
- 5. The plant has to buy a huge number of eggs and make sure they 're all sterile .