1
as in barren
not able to produce fruit or offspring
sterile couples sometimes choose to adopt needy children the apple tree turned out to be sterile, never yielding a crop of apples
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2
as in sanitary
free from filth, infection, or dangers to health
the hospitals in the war-torn city often lack necessary drugs and sterile surgical supplies
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Recent Examples of sterile
Mulch To maintain healthy strawberries, Montgomery places a sterile straw around the plants and then applies an additional layer of mulch on top.
—
Lauren Wellbank, Martha Stewart, 5 Mar. 2026
But as Eric, Harper Stern (Myha’la), Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela), and Rishi Ramdani (Sagar Radia) swapped sterile corporate bullpens for chic offices, five-star hotel suites, country estates, and even jail cells, the sounds of their worlds turned heavier and darker.
—Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone, 1 Mar. 2026
In a landmark Nature Biotechnology study, researchers engineered a CRISPR drive that disrupted this gene, causing female mosquitoes to develop as sterile intersex individuals.
—Srishti Gupta, Interesting Engineering, 27 Feb. 2026
According to a message that the health department posted to Facebook on Tuesday, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health issued a voluntary recall because some vials contained sterile water instead of a rabies vaccine.
—Madeline Bartos, CBS News, 25 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for sterile
Lauren Wellbank, Martha Stewart, 5 Mar. 2026
But as Eric, Harper Stern (Myha’la), Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela), and Rishi Ramdani (Sagar Radia) swapped sterile corporate bullpens for chic offices, five-star hotel suites, country estates, and even jail cells, the sounds of their worlds turned heavier and darker.
—Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone, 1 Mar. 2026
In a landmark Nature Biotechnology study, researchers engineered a CRISPR drive that disrupted this gene, causing female mosquitoes to develop as sterile intersex individuals.
—Srishti Gupta, Interesting Engineering, 27 Feb. 2026
According to a message that the health department posted to Facebook on Tuesday, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health issued a voluntary recall because some vials contained sterile water instead of a rabies vaccine.
—Madeline Bartos, CBS News, 25 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for sterile
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sterile
Adjective
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For one thing, the landscape is barren, the trees have yet to blossom and the lawns are all brown.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
14 Mar. 2026
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James Walker Tufts, the Boston soda entrepreneur and philanthropist, surely sensed it while traveling through the area at the end of the 19th century, prompting him to buy 5,800 acres in the Sandhills that had been left barren by lumber harvesting.—
Caleb Silver,
Southern Living,
12 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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For livestock, this would include potable water, sanitary living conditions and access to a windbreak such as a building or tree line.—
Paula Wethington,
CBS News,
6 Mar. 2026
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Results showed 80% of respondents voted no, citing both sanitary and ethical concerns.—
Reia Li,
AZCentral.com,
5 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Sterile.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sterile. Accessed 17 Mar. 2026.
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