Sterility

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sterility \Ste*ril"i*ty\, n. [L. sterilitas: cf. F.
     st['e]rilit['e].]
     1. The quality or condition of being sterile.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Biol.) Quality of being sterile; infecundity; also, the


        state of being free from germs or spores.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  sterility
       n 1: (of non-living objects) the state of being free of
            pathogenic organisms [syn: {asepsis}, {antisepsis}, {sterileness}]
       2: 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 [syn: {infertility}] [ant: {fertility}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  78 Moby Thesaurus words for "sterility":
     aridity, asepsis, barrenness, birth control, bloodlessness,
     characterlessness, cleanliness, cleanly habits, cleanness,
     colorlessness, contraception, daintiness, deadness, dearth,
     dismalness, dragginess, dreariness, dry womb, dryness, dullness,
     dustiness, effeteness, emptiness, etiolation, family planning,
     famine, fastidiousness, flatness, freshness, heaviness, hollowness,
     hospital cleanliness, immaculacy, immaculateness, impotence,
     inanity, ineffectualness, inexcitability, infecundity, infertility,
     insipidity, insipidness, jejunity, leadenness, lifelessness,
     lowness of spirit, paleness, pallor, planned parenthood,
     pointlessness, pokiness, ponderousness, pureness, purity, slowness,
     solemnity, spiritlessness, spotlessness, stainlessness,
     sterileness, stiffness, stodginess, stuffiness, superficiality,
     tastelessness, tediousness, tidiness, unfertileness,
     unfruitfulness, uninterestingness, unliveliness, unproductiveness,
     unspottedness, vapidity, vapidness, whiteness, withered loins,
     woodenness
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  STERILITY. Barrenness; incapacity to produce a child. It is curable and 
  incurable; when of the latter kind, at the time of the marriage, and arising 
  from impotency, it is a good cause for dissolving a marriage. 1 Fodere, Med. 
  Leg. Sec. 254. See Impotency.