stark
sheer, utter, downright, or complete: This plan is stark madness!
harsh, grim, or desolate, as a view, place, etc.: Her photos capture the stark desert landscape.
extremely simple or severe: With its stark interior and rough ride, the car scores low in our luxury car ranking.
bluntly or sternly plain; not softened or glamorized: He panicked suddenly at the stark reality of the approaching deadline.
distinct, sharp, or vivid: The thriving community gardens stood in stark contrast to vacant land and abandoned buildings.
stiff or rigid in substance, muscles, etc.
rigid in death.
Archaic. strong; powerful; massive or robust.
utterly, absolutely, or quite: stark mad.
Chiefly Scot. and North England. in a stark manner; stoutly or vigorously.
Origin of stark
1synonym study For stark
Other words from stark
- stark·ly, adverb
- stark·ness, noun
Words Nearby stark
Other definitions for Stark (2 of 2)
Harold Rayns·ford [reynz-ferd], /ˈreɪnz fərd/, 1880–1972, U.S. admiral.
Jo·han·nes [yoh-hah-nuhs], /yoʊˈhɑ nəs/, 1874–1957, German physicist: Nobel Prize 1919.
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
As such, the stark reality for early-stage startups is they may yet be caught in the cross-hairs of tough macroeconomic headwinds that are forcing even far more established startups to layoff staff and cut down costs.
Venture capital firms are collaborating to keep Nigerian startups alive | Yomi Kazeem | September 2, 2020 | QuartzThis hopeful message stood in stark contrast to his tough, no-nonsense, frontal attack on the president.
Joe Biden Appealed To 2 Different Audiences In His Acceptance Speech – 2 Experts Discuss Which Punches Landed | LGBTQ-Editor | August 22, 2020 | No Straight NewsMy guess is that while we wait for a vaccine or treatment, the international contrasts will only grow more stark.
The city conducted a survey to get a better sense of who’s offering the advice and found a stark demographic disparity.
Morning Report: MTS Doled Out Violations Disproportionately | Voice of San Diego | July 27, 2020 | Voice of San DiegoIn stark contrast to the rest of the US, where the number of positive coronavirus cases are spiking, reports indicate that New York is effectively containing the coronavirus, at least for the time being.
The shrewd political craft behind Andrew Cuomo’s folksy pandemic poster | Anne Quito | July 15, 2020 | Quartz
His constant worship of his wife stands in stark contrast to scandals of the domestic nature in other sports.
The Story of the World’s Greatest Cricket Player | William O’Connor | December 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThese images, videos and messages became a lifeline between two worlds and a stark record of the distance between them.
War Is About More Than Heroes, Martyrs, and Patriots | Nathan Bradley Bethea | November 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe fun of the episode, however, stands in stark contrast to its conclusion.
The Walking Dead’s ‘Self Help’: A Grim Show Displays Its Comedy Streak, and A Major Reveal | Melissa Leon | November 10, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWith some areas, the differences are stark in terms of where this windfall lands.
A recent Pew Poll graphically likewise portrays the stark national divide, and the granular differences are gaping.
The 2014 Election Is Yet Another Scrum in the Culture Wars | Lloyd Green | October 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTCharred beams and blackened walls showed stark and gaunt in the glow of a smoldering mass of wreckage.
The Red Year | Louis TracyJohn stark, a major general in the revolutionary army, died, aged 93.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology | Joel MunsellYou must pull yourself together or you'll go stark mad, and then you'll probably go and throw yourself over the Embankment.
Uncanny Tales | VariousTheir own mothers would hardly know them—burnt black with the sun, in rags or else stark naked, with pipes in their mouths.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I | Ian HamiltonThey stripped us stark naked, and the files were found in the bands of our trowsers through which the string that ties them runs.
Confessions of a Thug | Philip Meadows Taylor
British Dictionary definitions for stark (1 of 2)
/ (stɑːk) /
(usually prenominal) devoid of any elaboration; blunt: the stark facts
grim; desolate: a stark landscape
(usually prenominal) utter; absolute: stark folly
archaic severe; violent
archaic, or poetic rigid, as in death (esp in the phrases stiff and stark, stark dead)
short for stark-naked
completely: stark mad
Origin of stark
1Derived forms of stark
- starkly, adverb
- starkness, noun
British Dictionary definitions for Stark (2 of 2)
(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)
(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
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