Meaning & use
sterile
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparablemedical
Completely clean, with no germs or living microbes on or in it.
Grammar: Usually used before a noun or after be: sterile gloves, the needle is sterile.
Patterns
- sterile conditions
Nurses opened a sterile pack before the operation.
Baby bottles should be washed in hot water until they are sterile.
The lab keeps its equipment in a sterile cabinet.
adjectivecomparablebiology
Unable to have babies, or for plants, unable to produce seeds or fruit.
Grammar: Describes a person, animal or plant: a sterile mule.
A mule is sterile because it is a cross between a horse and a donkey.
The disease left him sterile.
Some banana varieties are sterile and grow only from cuttings.
adjectivecomparabledisapprovingfigurative
Cold, dull and lacking life, warmth or fresh ideas.
Grammar: Often used about places or discussions: a sterile office.
The waiting room felt sterile, with bare walls and hard chairs.
They had a sterile argument that solved nothing.
Critics called the music technically perfect but sterile.
Common combinations
- sterile environment
- Surgery needs a sterile environment.
- sterile gloves
- She pulled on sterile gloves.
- remain sterile
- The instruments must remain sterile until use.
- sterile debate
- It became a sterile debate over small details.
- completely sterile
- The room is completely sterile after cleaning.
Synonyms and how they differ
- germ-free
- Germ-free is plainer and common in everyday speech, while sterile is the exact term in medicine.
- aseptic
- Aseptic is more technical and describes methods or conditions that prevent infection, not just cleanliness.
- barren
- Barren fits land or plants that cannot produce anything, but is less natural than sterile for medical clean-ness.
- lifeless
- Lifeless focuses on missing energy or spirit, while sterile adds a feeling of coldness and over-tidiness.
Opposites
Word family
- sterilize verb
- to make free from germs, or to make unable to reproduce
- sterilization noun
- the process of sterilizing
- sterility noun
- the state of being sterile
- sterilizer noun
- a device or substance that sterilizes
Commonly confused: sterile or stereo?
sterile vs stereo
Stereo is about sound from two speakers and has no link to cleanliness, despite the similar start.
Practice
Before inserting the needle, the nurse made sure it was ___.
Choose one answer.
Sterile means free from germs, which suits medical equipment. Fertile means able to produce life or crops, so it does not fit a needle.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sterile”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.