stark

¹ American  

[stahrk] / stɑrk /

adjective

starker, starkest

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.

3. extremely simple or severe.

   With its stark interior and rough ride, the car scores low in our luxury car ranking.

4. bluntly or sternly plain; not softened or glamorized.

   He panicked suddenly at the stark reality of the approaching deadline.

5. distinct, sharp, or vivid.

   The thriving community gardens stood in stark contrast to vacant land and abandoned buildings.

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

7. rigid in death.

8. 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.

Stark ² American  

[stahrk, shtahrk] / stɑrk, ʃtɑrk /

noun

1. Harold Raynsford 1880–1972, U.S. admiral.

2. Johannes 1874–1957, German physicist: Nobel Prize 1919.

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

---

stark ¹ British  

/ stɑːk /

adjective

1. (usually prenominal) devoid of any elaboration; blunt

   the stark facts

2. grim; desolate

   a stark landscape

3. (usually prenominal) utter; absolute

   stark folly

4. archaic severe; violent

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

6. short for stark-naked

---

adverb

1. completely

   stark mad

Stark ² British  

noun

1. 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. 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

---

Related Words

See austere, bare ¹.

Other Word Forms

• starkly adverb
• starkness noun

Etymology

Origin of stark

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

Example Sentences

The bleak mood in cryptoland is in stark contrast to the start of last year, when investors cheered what many believed would be a new golden era for digital assets.

From The Wall Street Journal

His horse’s body and skin were both stark white, and his hair black, cut short, and his eyes green.

From Literature

His father, a fire-and-brimstone-spouting church elder, ordered him back, demanding he care for his grandmother, Ella, with the stark insistence: “She’s not my responsibility. It’s not fair of you to put the burden on me.”

From Los Angeles Times

But for now, the area around Lake Maracaibo stands as a stark reminder of how much the country's fortunes have declined over the decades.

From BBC

The technology sector’s great divide has only gotten starker this earnings season.

From MarketWatch

Related Words

• austere
• bleak
• depressing
• desolate
• grim
• harsh