aridity
Americannoun
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the state or quality of being extremely dry.
Many plant and animal adaptations to withstand the intense aridity of the desert are quite bizarre.
-
the quality of lacking interest, liveliness, or imaginativeness; sterility.
His writing style is excellent, avoiding the technical aridity of most professional science publications.
Etymology
Origin of aridity
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin āriditāt-, stem of āriditās, equivalent to ārid(us) “dry” ( arid ( def. ) ) + -itās -ity ( def. )
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.
But it isn’t just the heat—it’s the aridity.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026
The desert's extreme aridity makes it one of the clearest places on Earth to view the night sky and is famous for being home to the largest radio telescope in the world.
From BBC • Oct. 10, 2025
The Atacama Desert, which runs along the Pacific Coast in Chile, is the driest place on the planet and, largely because of that aridity, hostile to most living things.
From Science Daily • Nov. 14, 2024
Unsustainable land use also contributes to the aridity problem, with frogs frequently suffering as humans develop their homes for commercial, residential and other uses.
From Salon • Oct. 22, 2024
In addition, Australia’s aridity, infertility, and climatic unpredictability limited its hunter-gatherer population to only a few hundred thousand people.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
