arid
Americanadjective
-
being without moisture; extremely dry; parched.
arid land;
an arid climate.
-
barren or unproductive because of lack of moisture.
arid farmland.
-
lacking interest or imaginativeness; sterile.
an arid treatment of an exciting topic.
- Synonyms:
- pedantic, jejune, uninspiring, uninspired, vapid, dreary, tedious, dull
- Antonyms:
- imaginative, spirited, exciting, interesting, lively
adjective
-
having little or no rain; dry; parched with heat
-
devoid of interest
Synonym Usage
See dry.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of arid
First recorded in 1645–55; from French or directly from Latin āridus, equivalent to ār(ēre) “to be dry” + -idus adjective suffix; see -id 4; cf. ash 1
Explanation
Arid is so dry that nothing will grow. Death Valley in California features an arid climate, which is why it's called Death Valley and not Life Valley. Arid can also mean terribly dull or lifeless. A textbook about the climate of Death Valley might be called arid if it's written in an uninteresting way. Just like you wouldn't want to live in an arid climate, you wouldn't want to sit through an arid performance of the film-turned-musical, "Some Like it Hot."
Vocabulary lists containing arid
100 Top "SAT" Words
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A Long Walk to Water
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Physical Geography - Introductory
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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.
According to one popular saying, Andean provinces are so arid that fish kick up clouds of dust as they swim through their rivers.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
Skin bones may have helped reduce water loss and likely offered protection in open, arid landscapes.
From Science Daily ● May 21, 2026
Southern Californians traveling the arid stretches of the I-15 would see Primm pop up.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
"Prog is simply great music released from the arid strictures of cool and from the sneers of gatekeepers".
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026
That evening, as the Empire Builder climbed over the Cascades at Stevens Pass and set out across the arid wheat country of eastern Washington, the boys were on a lark.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
