sterile
A sterile person can't have kids, and a sterile environment is bland and boring. In both cases, sterile means lifeless.
When you hear about a sterile person, it means they can't have kids: sterile women can't get pregnant, and sterile men can't be fathers. But the concept of sterility applies to things, too. An empty, white room with nothing in it is sterile. And a surgeon's instruments better be sterile — meaning they're free from germs and bacteria.
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incapable of reproducingbarrennot bearing offspringunfruitfulnot fruitful; not conducive to abundant productionimpotentlacking power or abilityunproductivenot producing or capable of producingantonyms:fertilecapable of reproducingfecundcapable of producing offspring or vegetationfertilizablecapable of being fertilizedrankvery fertile; producing profuse growthfruitfulproductive or conducive to producing in abundanceproductiveproducing or capable of producing (especially abundantly)
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free of or using methods to keep free of pathological microorganisms“a sterile operating area”synonyms: asepticantisepticthoroughly clean and free of or destructive to disease-causing organisms
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deficient in originality or creativity; lacking powers of invention“a sterile ideology lacking in originality”synonyms: unimaginative, uninspired, uninventiveuncreativenot creative
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Vocabulary lists containing sterile
In this dystopian novel, America is a totalitarian theocracy in which young women are conscripted to serve the political elite.
Renowned writer Roald Dahl, the author of such children's classics as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda, recounts unexpected and fascinating stories from his own childhood.
In this "remix" of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Zuri Benitez grapples with the effects of gentrification — and with her complicated feelings toward Darius Darcy — when the wealthy Darcy family moves into her Brooklyn neighborhood.