sterile
[ster-il or, esp. British, -ahyl]
- free from living germs or microorganisms; aseptic: sterile surgical instruments.
- incapable of producing offspring; not producing offspring.
- barren; not producing vegetation: sterile soil.
- Botany.
- noting a plant in which reproductive structures fail to develop.
- bearing no stamens or pistils.
- not productive of results, ideas, etc.; fruitless.
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Origin of sterile
First recorded in 1545–55, sterile is from the Latin word sterilis unfruitful
Synonyms
Antonyms
2, 3. fertile.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
unsterile
- not free from living, esp pathogenic, microorganisms
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sterile
- unable to produce offspring; infertile
- free from living, esp pathogenic, microorganisms; aseptic
- (of plants or their parts) not producing or bearing seeds, fruit, spores, stamens, or pistils
- lacking inspiration or vitality; fruitless
- economics, US (of gold) not being used to support credit creation or an increased money supply
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin sterilis
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for unsterile
sterile
adj.
early 15c., "barren" (implied in sterility), from Middle French stérile "not producing fruit," from Latin sterilis "barren, unproductive," from PIE *ster- "sterile, barren" originally "stiff, rigid" (cf. Greek steresthai "be deprived of," steira "sterile," stereos "firm, solid, stiff, hard;" Sanskrit starih "a barren cow;" Old Church Slavonic sterica "a barren cow;" Gothic stairo "barren;" Old Norse stirtla "a barren cow"). See torpor. Originally in English with reference to soil; of females, from 1530s. The sense of "sterilized" is first recorded 1877.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
sterile
(stĕr′əl, -īl′)- Not producing or incapable of producing offspring.
- Free from all live bacteria or other microorganisms and their spores.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
sterile
[stĕr′əl, stĕr′īl′]
- Not able to produce offspring, seeds, or fruit; unable to reproduce.
- Free from disease-causing microorganisms.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.