stark
adjective
sheer, utter, downright, or complete.
stark
1 American
[stahrk]
/ stɑrk /
adjective
-
starker,
comparative
-
starkest
superlative
-
sheer, utter, downright, or complete.
This plan is stark madness!
-
harsh, grim, or desolate, as a view, place, etc..
Her photos capture the stark desert landscape.
-
extremely simple or severe.
With its stark interior and rough ride, the car scores low in our luxury car ranking.
-
bluntly or sternly plain; not softened or glamorized.
He panicked suddenly at the stark reality of the approaching deadline.
-
distinct, sharp, or vivid.
The thriving community gardens stood in stark contrast to vacant land and abandoned buildings.
-
stiff or rigid in substance, muscles, etc.
-
rigid in death.
-
Archaic. strong; powerful; massive or robust.
adverb
-
utterly, absolutely, or quite.
stark mad.
-
Chiefly Scot. and North England. in a stark manner; stoutly or vigorously.
Stark
2
American
[stahrk, shtahr k]
/ stɑrk, ʃtɑrk /
noun
-
Harold Raynsford 1880–1972, U.S. admiral.
-
Johannes 1874–1957, German physicist: Nobel Prize 1919.
-
John, 1728–1822, American Revolutionary War general.
stark
1
British
/ stɑːk /
adjective
-
(usually prenominal) devoid of any elaboration; blunt
the stark facts
-
grim; desolate
a stark landscape
-
(usually prenominal) utter; absolute
stark folly
-
archaic severe; violent
-
archaic rigid, as in death (esp in the phrases stiff and stark, stark dead )
-
short for stark-naked
adverb
Stark
2
British
noun
-
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)
-
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
Synonym Usage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
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
Explanation
Stark means "complete or extreme," like the stark contrast between your music taste — punk and weird metal — and your mom's, with all her 1950's doo-wop favorites. In describing a place, stark means "providing no shelter or sustenance." A barren desert or a room with no furniture or curtains is stark. It can also mean "severe, stern, or austere," like the stark beauty of the rocky cliffs in the west of Ireland. Stark can also be used to mean "totally." If you are called stark, raving mad, there's no question about it: you are acting completely crazy.
Vocabulary lists containing stark
Words from "The Avengers"
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 7–11
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The Catcher in the Rye
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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.
See Examples For:
In the summer of 2019, I was sitting in a stark hospital room, while a shrunken version of my mom laid in the bed in front of me.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
But reactions in the Serb entity of divided Bosnia were in stark contrast.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
The Blood Moon will be at its most stark across the West at about 05:12 BST, when around 90% of the Moon will be within the umbra.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
The novel is about as stark and stripped of biographical details as a Samuel Beckett story.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
The bed beside me looked stark and cold.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
And once Stark Industries and Wayne Enterprises bankroll their respective super-squads’ fortified headquarters, they attract the universe’s talent.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
America’s most-loved fictional titans, Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, have bottomless wealth to fund their vigilante adventures, making them especially mesmerizing to an audience raised on rags-to-riches fables.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Florian Seibel, co-CEO and co-founder, told reporters that the fundraising could open the way for Quantum to acquire Stark Defence -- a maker of attack drones, which he also helped to found.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
Maja Stark has a special appreciation for that now, a year after winning the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
The singer seemed intent on making off with the daughter of Eddard Stark.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
After initially declining to say where he stands, Paxton issued a fresh statement that pushed back on Big Bend construction in starker terms.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
They are generally about 10% to 20% more expensive than gas-powered cars, a difference made starker by the end of those U.S. tax incentives.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 5, 2026
The contrast cannot be starker: selfie-taking tourists sipping coffee at Starbucks -- an icon of globalisation and capitalism -- while looking out over reclusive, communist North Korea.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
The tension between the two men became starker in 1953 when President Eisenhower, during his first two years in office, had to deal with Churchill as prime minister.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
Her room always made him feel wistful and envious for the abundance in which she dwelled—a stark contrast with his even starker room.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
The starkest contrast between two summertime TV hits about women navigating midlife’s challenges shows up in the way its leading ladies handle themselves in the kitchen.
From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026
They were the starkest sign yet that efforts to clinch a permanent peace agreement are unraveling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
The starkest contrast between then and now is the fiscal policy situation.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
If you’re going to spend five seasons of TV with them, what is the starkest contrast you can do between how you meet them and where they end up?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
Emasculated by dams and diversion canals, the lower Colorado burbles indolently from reservoir to reservoir through some of the hottest, starkest country on the continent.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
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.
