sterility

nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,137 of 15,258neutral

Sterility is the inability to produce young, or complete freedom from germs. Male sterility, maintain sterility, the sterility of the field.

The medical sense is absolute where infertility is a matter of difficulty, which is a distinction doctors keep and everybody else blurs. In surgery, sterility of the instruments is the difference between an operation and an infection.

Definitions of sterility

1nounsterilityThe inability to produce young, or complete freedom from germs.C2
“Some cross-bred animals, like the mule, suffer from sterility and cannot have young.”

sterility is a state.

Where it comes from

Latin sterilitas comes from sterilis, barren.

Latin
sterilitās
Middle English
sterylite,sterylyte
English, today
sterility

From Middle English sterylite,sterylyte, from Latin sterilitās. by surface analysis, sterile + -ity.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

sterility in the wild

Naturally occurring male sterility systems, as well as engineered approaches, are widely used in plant breeding to facilitate the production of hybrid seed.
Male sterility in plants
In some engineered systems, targeted genetic approaches have been used to selectively disrupt tapetal function to induce male sterility.
Male sterility in plants
Male sterility is the failure to produce functional anthers, pollen, or male gametes.
Cytoplasmic male sterility
Natural sterility is the couple's physiological inability to conceive a child.
Sterility (physiology)
Clinical sterility is natural sterility for which treatment of the patient will not result in conception.
Sterility (physiology)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

sterile

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