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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of sterile
Throwing that history away in favor of a sterile Eastern and Western League concept would be short-sighted, self-defeating and unnecessary.
—
Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald, 7 Sep. 2025
Tomasz Naumiuk’s soup-thick cinematography is textured enough to see the sterile air of the film’s brutalist interiors, and to get lost in the hopeless void of the Warsaw streets at night.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 6 Sep. 2025
Dealing with the horrors of the situation in Gaza within the sterile environment of a call center, its workers are feeling increasingly hopeless, caught in the political crossfire of an escalating situation.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2025
Most need to function, at least partially, as sterile manufacturing businesses full of stainless steel and industrial-grade cleaners.
—Kate Bernot, Outside, 29 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sterile
Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald, 7 Sep. 2025
Tomasz Naumiuk’s soup-thick cinematography is textured enough to see the sterile air of the film’s brutalist interiors, and to get lost in the hopeless void of the Warsaw streets at night.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 6 Sep. 2025
Dealing with the horrors of the situation in Gaza within the sterile environment of a call center, its workers are feeling increasingly hopeless, caught in the political crossfire of an escalating situation.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2025
Most need to function, at least partially, as sterile manufacturing businesses full of stainless steel and industrial-grade cleaners.
—Kate Bernot, Outside, 29 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sterile
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sterile
Adjective
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The team wasn’t able to completely rule out that TRAPPIST-1e is a barren rock like its inner siblings, however, partly because of interference from its hyperactive star.—
Jonathan O'Callaghan,
Scientific American,
8 Sep. 2025
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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
Adjective
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In other business, sanitary sewer project manager Walter Jaime told the council the city recorded a 6.35-inch rainfall during a rainstorm Aug. 18-19 that led to a sanitary sewage overflow on 25th Avenue, east of Clay Street.—
Carole Carlson,
Chicago Tribune,
30 Aug. 2025
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The sanitary sewer overflow released an additional 131 million gallons.—
Caitlin Looby,
jsonline.com,
22 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Sterile.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sterile. Accessed 14 Sep. 2025.
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