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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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
These measures include allowing the emergency use of veterinary drugs to treat or prevent infestations in animals and the building of a sterile fly facility in Texas.
—
Dominique Mosbergen, Time, 26 Aug. 2025
The flies are made sterile through radiation.
—Cara Lynn Shultz, People.com, 26 Aug. 2025
Scott says that at its peak, the half-century eradication campaign was run from a facility in Mexico that could produce at least 500 million sterile flies per week.
—Rachel Treisman, NPR, 25 Aug. 2025
The flies were held at bay with a biological barrier of constant releases of sterile male flies along the Darién Gap at the border of Panama and Colombia.
—Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 25 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sterile
Dominique Mosbergen, Time, 26 Aug. 2025
The flies are made sterile through radiation.
—Cara Lynn Shultz, People.com, 26 Aug. 2025
Scott says that at its peak, the half-century eradication campaign was run from a facility in Mexico that could produce at least 500 million sterile flies per week.
—Rachel Treisman, NPR, 25 Aug. 2025
The flies were held at bay with a biological barrier of constant releases of sterile male flies along the Darién Gap at the border of Panama and Colombia.
—Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 25 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sterile
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sterile
Adjective
-
The local Rite Aid was getting ready to shut down, with barren shelves and 75% off all items, while commerce elsewhere in the town of less than 3,000 people wasn’t exactly bustling.—
David Mark,
The Washington Examiner,
5 Sep. 2025
-
While flying a shuttlecraft, she gets sucked into a wormhole and crashes onto a barren moon.—
Adam B. Vary,
Variety,
5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
The sanitary sewer overflow released an additional 131 million gallons.—
Caitlin Looby,
jsonline.com,
22 Aug. 2025
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From more sanitary and reliable health care products to light-weight (and hence energy efficient) infrastructure, plastics have been just as transformative in their benefits to humanity as bronze or copper or iron.—
Saleem H. Ali,
Forbes.com,
19 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Sterile.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sterile. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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