| / English Dictionary |
STERILE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Deficient in originality or creativity; lacking powers of invention
Example:
uninspired writing
Synonyms:
sterile; unimaginative; uninspired; uninventive
Classified under:
Similar:
uncreative (not creative)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Incapable of reproducing
Example:
an infertile couple
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
barren (not bearing offspring)
sterilised; sterilized (made infertile)
unfertilised; unfertilized; unimpregnated (not having been fertilized)
Also:
unfruitful (not fruitful; not conducive to abundant production)
impotent (lacking power or ability)
unproductive (not producing or capable of producing)
Attribute:
fecundity; fertility (the state of being fertile; capable of producing offspring)
Antonym:
fertile (capable of reproducing)
Derivation:
sterility (the state of being unable to produce offspring; in a woman it is an inability to conceive; in a man it is an inability to impregnate)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Free of or using methods to keep free of pathological microorganisms
Example:
aseptic surgical techniques
Synonyms:
aseptic; sterile
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
antiseptic (thoroughly clean and free of or destructive to disease-causing organisms)
Derivation:
sterileness; sterility ((of non-living objects) the state of being free of pathogenic organisms)
Context examples:
A process that fills a dosage unit using an augur to deliver the powder, which is not performed under sterile conditions.
(Non-Sterile Augur Powder Filling Method, NCI Thesaurus)
A process that fills a dosage unit using a dosing disk to deliver the powder, which is not performed under sterile conditions.
(Non-Sterile Dosing Disk Powder Filling Method, NCI Thesaurus)
A process that fills a container with a purified medical gas, which is not performed under sterile conditions.
(Non-Sterile Medical Gas Filling Method, NCI Thesaurus)
Maintenance of vertebrate tissue after removal from the body, by placing in a vessel with a sterile nutritive medium.
(Culturing, In Vitro Vertebrate, Tissue, NCI Thesaurus)
The Glasswashing and Sterilization Shared Resource perform the preparation of clean sterile regular and special needs glassware for Cancer Center laboratories.
(Glasswashing and Sterilization Shared Resource, NCI Thesaurus)
A sterile aqueous complex of polynuclear iron (III)-hydroxide in sucrose for intravenous use.
(Iron Sucrose Injection, NCI Thesaurus)
To the south of Pampeluna in the kingdom of Navarre there stretched a high table-land, rising into bare, sterile hills, brown or gray in color, and strewn with huge boulders of granite.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A sterile solution intended to bathe or flush open wounds or body cavities; they're used topically, never parenterally.
(Irrigant Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)
Unlike a normal neutrino, which interacts by a subatomic force, this possible new particle would be affected only by gravity and is dubbed a “sterile neutrino.”
(Measuring Growth of Universe Reveals a Mystery, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
A sterile liquid preparation infused into a vein.
(IV Fluid, NCI Thesaurus)
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