Sterile1. (a.) Producing little or no crop; barren; unfruitful; unproductive; not fertile; as, sterile land; a sterile desert; a sterile year.
2. (a.) Incapable of reproduction; unfitted for reproduction of offspring; not able to germinate or bear fruit; unfruitful; as, a sterile flower, which bears only stamens.
3. (a.) Free from reproductive spores or germs; as, a sterile fluid.
4. (a.) Fig.: Barren of ideas; destitute of sentiment; as, a sterile production or author.
Thesaurus Entries
abortive, acarpous, antiseptic, arid, aseptic, bare, barren, blah, blank, bloodless, boiled, bootless, celibate, characterless, childless, cold, colorless, counterproductive, dead, decontaminated, desert, desolate, disinfected, dismal, draggy, drained, drearisome, dreary, dried-up, dry, dryasdust, dull, dusty, effete, elephantine, empty, etiolated, exhausted, fade, fallow, fatuitous, fatuous, feckless, flat, fruitless, futile, gainless, gaunt, gelded, heavy, ho-hum, hollow, hygienic, impotent, inadequate, inane, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, inexcitable, infecund, infertile, inoperative, insipid, invalid, issueless, jejune, leached, leaden, lifeless, low-spirited, menopausal, noncreative, nonfertile, nonproducing, nonproductive, nonprolific, nonremunerative, nugacious, nugatory, of no force, otiose, pale, pallid, pasteurized, pedestrian, plodding, pointless, poky, ponderous, profitless, prophylactic, pure, rewardless, sanitary, sine prole, slow, solemn, spiritless, stale, sterilized, stiff, stodgy, stuffy, sucked dry, superficial, tasteless, tedious, teemless, unavailing, uncontaminated, uncreative, uncultivated, unfertile, unfruitful, uninfected, uninspired, uninventive, unlively, unplowed, unpolluted, unproductive, unprofitable, unprolific, unremunerative, unrewarding, unsown, untilled, useless, vain, vapid, virgin, waste, wasted, without issue, wooden, worn-out