sterility

ster·ile  (strl, -l)

adj.

1. Not producing or incapable of producing offspring.

2.

a. Not producing or incapable of producing seed, fruit spores, or other reproductive structures. Used of plants or their parts.

b. Producing little or no vegetation; unfruitful: sterile land.

3. Free from live bacteria or other microorganisms: a sterile operating area; sterile instruments.

4. Lacking imagination, creativity, or vitality.

5. Lacking the power to function; not productive or effective; fruitless: a sterile discussion.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sterilis.]

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sterile·ly adv.

sterile·ness, ste·rili·ty (st-rl-t) n.

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impotence, sterility - Impotence is the male's inability to copulate or get an erection; sterility is the inability of either a male or female to procreate.

See also related terms for inability.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	sterility - (of non-living objects) the state of being free of pathogenic organisms antisepsis, asepsis, sterileness sanitariness - the state of being conducive to health
	2.	sterility - the state of being unable to produce offspring; in a woman it is an inability to conceive; in a man it is an inability to impregnate infertility physical condition, physiological condition, physiological state - the condition or state of the body or bodily functions impotence, impotency - an inability (usually of the male animal) to copulate barrenness - the state (usually of a woman) of having no children or being unable to have children cacogenesis - inability to produce hybrids that are both viable and fertile dysgenesis - infertility between hybrids

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sterility

noun

1. infertility, childlessness, infecundity (technical) This disease causes sterility in both males and females.

2. emptiness, futility, banality, worthlessness, hollowness, meaninglessness, barrenness, senselessness, aimlessness, purposelessness, valuelessness the sterility of Dorothea's life in industry

Translations

sterility [steˈrɪlɪtɪ] N → esterilidad f

sterility [stəˈrɪləti] n

[dressing, equipment, water] → stérilité f

(= infertility) [person, animal] → stérilité f

[debate, relationship, statistics] → stérilité f

sterility

n

(of animal, soil) → Unfruchtbarkeit f; (of person also) → Sterilität f; (fig: = fruitlessness also) → Ergebnislosigkeit f

(= absence of contamination, fig) → Sterilität f

sterility [stɛˈrɪlɪtɪ] n → sterilità