Meaning & use
barren
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Too dry or poor to support plants or crops, so that little or nothing grows.
Grammar: Before a noun or after a verb: barren land; the hills are barren.
Patterns
- barren of something
The farmers abandoned the barren fields after years of drought.
A barren desert stretched to the horizon.
The mountain slope was barren and rocky.
adjectivecomparablefigurative
Empty of ideas, interest or results; achieving nothing.
Grammar: Figurative; often before a noun: a barren period.
Patterns
- barren of something
The talks ended after a barren week of argument.
The team had a barren spell without a win.
The speech was barren of any new ideas.
adjectivecomparableold-fashioned
Unable to produce young or fruit.
Grammar: Applied to plants or animals; for people it is old-fashioned and can sound hurtful.
The old apple tree had become barren.
Barren soil and barren trees were common in the dry valley.
Word forms
| comparative | more barren |
|---|---|
| superlative | most barren |
Common combinations
- barren landscape
- A barren landscape of ice and rock.
- barren land
- Little grew on the barren land.
- barren of
- The room was barren of furniture.
- barren wasteland
- The factory left a barren wasteland.
- barren desert
- They crossed a barren desert.
Synonyms and how they differ
- infertile
- Neutral and scientific; says soil or a creature cannot produce.
- desolate
- Adds a sense of loneliness and emptiness.
- bare
- Simply uncovered or empty, without the idea of lifelessness.
- sterile
- Often suggests clean or unable to reproduce rather than harsh land.
Opposites
Word family
- barrenness noun
- the state of being barren
- barrens noun
- stretches of poor, treeless land
Commonly confused: barren or baron?
barren vs baron
A baron is a nobleman; the word sounds similar but has no connection to empty land.
Practice
After the volcano erupted, the once-green hillside became a ___ slope of ash and stone.
Choose one answer.
Barren means nothing grows. Lush and fertile describe the opposite, and crowded does not describe vegetation.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “barren”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.