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STERILITY
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Dictionary entry overview: What does sterility mean?
• STERILITY (noun)
The noun STERILITY has 2 senses:
1. (of non-living objects) the state of being free of pathogenic organisms
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
Familiarity information: STERILITY used as a noun is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
(of non-living objects) the state of being free of pathogenic organisms
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
antisepsis; asepsis; sterileness; sterility
Hypernyms ("sterility" is a kind of...):
sanitariness (the state of being conducive to health)
Derivation:
sterile (free of or using methods to keep free of pathological microorganisms)
Sense 2
Meaning:
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
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
infertility; sterility
Hypernyms ("sterility" is a kind of...):
physical condition; physiological condition; physiological state (the condition or state of the body or bodily functions)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sterility"):
impotence; impotency (an inability (usually of the male animal) to copulate)
barrenness (the state (usually of a woman) of having no children or being unable to have children)
cacogenesis (inability to produce hybrids that are both viable and fertile)
dysgenesis (infertility between hybrids)
Derivation:
sterile (incapable of reproducing)
Context examples
Defects in MMR are associated with genome-wide instability, predisposition to certain types of cancer including HNPCC, resistance to certain chemotherapeutic agents, and abnormalities in meiosis and sterility in mammalian systems.
(Mismatch Repair Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)
It can result in unilateral or bilateral cryptorchidism, testicular regression syndrome and sterility.
(Mullerian Inhibiting Substance Deficiency, NCI Thesaurus)
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