barren
Americanadjective
-
not producing or incapable of producing offspring; sterile.
a barren woman.
- Synonyms:
- infertile, unprolific, childless
- Antonyms:
- fertile
-
unproductive; unfruitful.
barren land.
- Antonyms:
- fertile
-
without capacity to interest or attract.
a barren period in American architecture.
- Antonyms:
- fertile
-
mentally unproductive; dull; stupid.
- Antonyms:
- fertile
-
not producing results; fruitless.
a barren effort.
- Synonyms:
- ineffective, ineffectual
- Antonyms:
- fertile
-
destitute; bereft; lacking (usually followed byof ).
barren of tender feelings.
- Antonyms:
- fertile
noun
adjective
-
incapable of producing offspring, seed, or fruit; sterile
a barren tree
-
unable to support the growth of crops, etc; unproductive; bare
barren land
-
lacking in stimulation or ideas; dull
a rather barren play
-
not producing worthwhile results; unprofitable
a barren period in a writer's life
-
(foll by of) totally lacking (in); devoid (of)
his speech was barren of wit
-
(of rock strata) having no fossils
Synonym Usage
See bare 1.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of barren
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English barayn(e), bareyn(e), from Anglo-French barai(gn)e, Old French brahaigne ( French bréhaigne “sterile”), akin to Spanish breña “scrubby, uncultivated ground,” Upper Italian barena “land along a lagoon covered by high water,” all of disputed ultimate origin; perhaps from Celtic (compare Irish branar, Welsh braenar “fallow land”); alternatively, perhaps from a Germanic source akin to Old English bær, Old High German bar ( see bare 1 ( def. ))
Explanation
Drive through a forest that's just been destroyed by a fire, and you'll get an idea of what barren means — stripped of vegetation and devoid of life. Not to be confused with a baron, a kind of nobleman, barren is often used to describe an area of land that lacks any signs of life. A barren wilderness is dry and empty, with no foliage or twittering birds to be found. An old-fashioned and unflattering word for a woman who is unable to have children is barren.
Vocabulary lists containing barren
The Diary of Anne Frank
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Zilch, Zip, Nada: Words For Nothing
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Craft, who grew up on a farm in Barren County in south-central Kentucky, enters the crowded Republican primary for governor with the advantage of being able to tap her family’s wealth to finance her campaign.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 13, 2022
Barren streets bore no sign of people or animals.
From Reuters • Jul. 14, 2022
Barren to the naked eye, the desert is rich in resources guarded by monstrous sandworms large enough to consume a small village in one gulp.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 4, 2022
Fans said it was important to them to maintain the colors the team had used for nearly a century, Barren said at the news conference.
From Washington Post • Jul. 23, 2021
He had obviously moved on, but if he wasn’t on Barren Mountain and wasn’t at Cloud Pond and was nowhere in between, then where was he?
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
