BARRENNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does barrenness mean? 

• BARRENNESS (noun)
  The noun BARRENNESS has 2 senses:

1. the state (usually of a woman) of having no children or being unable to have children

2. the quality of yielding nothing of value

  Familiarity information: BARRENNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BARRENNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state (usually of a woman) of having no children or being unable to have children

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("barrenness" is a kind of...):

infertility; 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)

Derivation:

barren (not bearing offspring)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of yielding nothing of value

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

aridity; barrenness; fruitlessness

Hypernyms ("barrenness" is a kind of...):

quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "barrenness"):

poorness (less than adequate)

unproductiveness (the quality of lacking the power to produce)

Derivation:

barren (providing no shelter or sustenance)

 Context examples 

If it were grim and desolate upon the English border, however, what can describe the hideous barrenness of this ten times harried tract of France?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)