barren
Other forms: barrens; barrenly; barrener
Drive through a forest that's just been destroyed by a fire, and you'll get an idea of what barren means — stripped of vegetation and devoid of life.
Not to be confused with a baron, a kind of nobleman, barren is often used to describe an area of land that lacks any signs of life. A barren wilderness is dry and empty, with no foliage or twittering birds to be found. An old-fashioned and unflattering word for a woman who is unable to have children is barren.
-
completely wanting or lacking“writing barren of insight”nonexistentnot having existence or being or actuality
-
providing no shelter or sustenance
-
an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation
-
not bearing offspring
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing barren
This dramatic adaptation of the diary of a young Jewish girl hiding from the Nazis won both a Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
January 16 is National Nothing Day. Mark this empty occasion by learning this list of words describing things that are absent, or missing, or never there at all. It turns out that there are lots of ways to say nothing!