sterile

(stĕr'əl, -īl')
adj.

1. Not producing or incapable of producing offspring.
2. 1. Not producing or incapable of producing seed, fruit spores, or other reproductive structures. Used of plants or their parts.
   2. Producing little or no vegetation; unfruitful: sterile land.
3. Free from live bacteria or other microorganisms: a sterile operating area; sterile instruments.
4. Lacking imagination, creativity, or vitality.
5. Lacking the power to function; not productive or effective; fruitless: a sterile discussion.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sterilis.]

sterilely ster'ile·ly adv.
sterileness ster'ile·ness or ste·ril'i·ty (stə-rĭl'ĭ-tē) n.

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Free from all micro-organisms, bacteria, moulds, and yeasts. When foods are sterilized, as in canning, they are preserved indefinitely, since they are protected from recontamination in the can, and also from enzymic deterioration.

adjective

1. Unable to produce offspring: barren, childless, impotent, infertile, unfruitful. See rich/poor.
2. Lacking or unable to produce growing plants or crops: barren, infertile, unfruitful, unproductive. See rich/poor.
3. Free or freed from microorganisms: sanitized, sterilized. See clean/dirty.
4. Lacking originality: uncreative, unimaginative, uninspired, uninventive, unoriginal. See rich/poor.
5. Lacking liveliness, charm, or surprise: arid, aseptic, colorless, drab, dry, dull, earthbound, flat, flavorless, lackluster, lifeless, lusterless, matter-of-fact, pedestrian, prosaic, spiritless, stodgy, unimaginative, uninspired. See excite/bore/interest.

adj

Definition: unproductive; clean
Antonyms: dirty, fertile, fruitful, productive

1. A term used to describe a flower without functional sexual parts.
2. A term used to describe a plant that is unable to produce seeds, often because it is of hybrid ancestry.

A term used to describe soil that has been heated to a temperature high enough to destroy weed seeds or pathogens.

A term used to describe a growing medium that is not contaminated by pathogens.

1. (of inanimate objects) free from microbiological or other life forms.
2. (of a living organism) incapable of sexual reproduction.

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The state of being sterile. See also infertility.

• cryptorchidism s. — see cryptorchidism.
• hybrids s. — offspring of parents of different species, these animals are usually sterile due to differences between the chromosomes of the two parents.
• intersex s. — sterility due to chromosomal differences within the patient.
• nondisjunction s. — sterility due to chromosomal errors.
• polled goats s. — a small percentage of all genetically female polled goats are sterile due to masculinization.
• XX male dogs s. — a Y chromosome-dependent character is an obligatory primary component in transforming the indifferent gonad into a testis.

adj

Free from viable microorganisms.

For a list of words related to sterility, see:

• Family Affairs - sterility: inability to conceive offspring
• Contraception and Fertility - sterility: inability to produce living offspring

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See words rhyming with "sterility."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Sterile.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - steril, ufrugtbar, gold

Nederlands (Dutch)
steriel, onvruchtbaar

Français (French)
adj. - stérile

Deutsch (German)
adj. - steril, unfruchtbar, fruchtlos

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - άγονος, στείρος, άσηπτος, (μτφ.) άκαρπος, ατελέσφορος

Italiano (Italian)
sterile

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - estéril

Русский (Russian)
бесплодный, неплодородный, безрезультатный, лишенный своеобразия, стерильный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - estéril, antiséptico

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - steril, ofruktsam, ofruktbar

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
贫脊的, 不结果的, 不育的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 貧脊的, 不結果的, 不育的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 불임의, 생산 못하는, 불모의

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - やせた, 不毛の, 不妊の, 無菌の, 内容に乏しい, 無効の, つまらない

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) عقيم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מעוקר, סטרילי, מחוטא, עקר, לא פורייה, סרק, חסר-מעוף‬

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