stark

[ stahrk ]
See synonyms for stark on Thesaurus.com
adjective,stark·er, stark·est.
  1. sheer, utter, downright, or complete: This plan is stark madness!

  2. harsh, grim, or desolate, as a view, place, etc.: Her photos capture the stark desert landscape.

  1. extremely simple or severe: With its stark interior and rough ride, the car scores low in our luxury car ranking.

  2. bluntly or sternly plain; not softened or glamorized: He panicked suddenly at the stark reality of the approaching deadline.

  3. distinct, sharp, or vivid: The thriving community gardens stood in stark contrast to vacant land and abandoned buildings.

  4. stiff or rigid in substance, muscles, etc.

  5. rigid in death.

  6. Archaic. strong; powerful; massive or robust.

adverb
  1. utterly, absolutely, or quite: stark mad.

  2. Chiefly Scot. and North England. in a stark manner; stoutly or vigorously.

Origin of stark

1
First recorded before 900; (adjective) Middle English; Old English stearc “stiff, firm”; cognate with German stark “strong”; akin to Old Norse sterkr “strong”; akin to starch, stare; (adverb) Middle English sterke, derivative of the adjective

synonym study For stark

2, 3. See austere, bare1.

Other words from stark

  • stark·ly, adverb
  • stark·ness, noun

Words Nearby stark

Other definitions for Stark (2 of 2)

Stark
[ stahrk; for 2 also German shtahrk ]

noun
  1. Harold Rayns·ford [reynz-ferd], /ˈreɪnz fərd/, 1880–1972, U.S. admiral.

  2. Jo·han·nes [yoh-hah-nuhs], /yoʊˈhɑ nəs/, 1874–1957, German physicist: Nobel Prize 1919.

  1. John, 1728–1822, American Revolutionary War general.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use stark in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for stark (1 of 2)

stark

/ (stɑːk) /


adjective
  1. (usually prenominal) devoid of any elaboration; blunt: the stark facts

  2. grim; desolate: a stark landscape

  1. (usually prenominal) utter; absolute: stark folly

  2. archaic severe; violent

  3. archaic, or poetic rigid, as in death (esp in the phrases stiff and stark, stark dead)

  4. short for stark-naked

adverb
  1. completely: stark mad

Origin of stark

1
Old English stearc stiff; related to Old Norse sterkr, Gothic gastaurknan to stiffen

Derived forms of stark

  • starkly, adverb
  • starkness, noun

British Dictionary definitions for Stark (2 of 2)

Stark

noun
  1. (stɑːk) Dame Freya (Madeline) (ˈfreɪə). 1893–1993, British traveller and writer, whose many books include The Southern Gates of Arabia (1936), Beyond Euphrates (1951), and The Journey's Echo (1963)

  2. (German ʃtark) Johannes (joˈhanəs). 1874–1957, German physicist, who discovered the splitting of the lines of a spectrum when the source of light is subjected to a strong electrostatic field (Stark effect, 1913): Nobel prize for physics 1919

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012