aridity

Also ar·id·ness

[uh-rid-i-tee]

noun

1. the state or quality of being extremely dry.

   Many plant and animal adaptations to withstand the intense aridity of the desert are quite bizarre.

2. the quality of lacking interest, liveliness, or imaginativeness; sterility.

   His writing style is excellent, avoiding the technical aridity of most professional science publications.

Word History and Origins

Origin of aridity¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin āriditāt-, stem of āriditās, equivalent to ārid(us) “dry” ( arid ( def. ) ) + -itās -ity ( def. )

Example Sentences

Dating to between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago, the engravings correspond to a time when temporary lakes and rivers reappeared after centuries of extreme aridity.

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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.

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That such rapid and substantial overuse of groundwater is also causing coastal flooding underscores the compounding threat of rising temperatures and aridity.

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But many leading producers face higher temperatures, greater aridity, and other challenges to raising a crop that requires very specific conditions to thrive.

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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.

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