Synonyms for barren
ˈbær ənbar·ren

WiktionaryRate these synonyms:3.0 / 3 votes

1. barrenadjective

   Synonyms:
   sterile

   Antonyms:
   fertile, fruitful

2. barrenadjective

   unable to bear children; sterile

   The pine barrens are a site lonely enough to suit any hermit.

   Synonyms:
   sterile

   Antonyms:
   fruitful, fertile

3. barrenadjective

   of poor fertility, infertile

   Synonyms:
   sterile

   Antonyms:
   fertile, fruitful

4. barrenadjective

   bleak

   Synonyms:
   sterile

   Antonyms:
   fruitful, fertile

5. barrenadjective

   not productive

   Synonyms:
   sterile

   Antonyms:
   fertile, fruitful

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. barren, waste, wastelandadjective

   an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation

   "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert"

   Synonyms:
   waste product, waste, thriftlessness, permissive waste, wastefulness, waste matter, dissipation, waste material, wasteland

   Antonyms:
   existent, existing, fertile, hospitable

2. bare, barren, bleak, desolate, starkadjective

   providing no shelter or sustenance

   "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape"

   Synonyms:
   spare, bare(a), devoid, perfect(a), consummate(a), blunt, unornamented, austere, au naturel(p), bare, raw, marginal, arrant(a), black, severe, gross(a), staring(a), simple(a), stripped, desolate, destitute, mere(a), cutting, everlasting(a), double-dyed(a), crude(a), dim, complete(a), innocent, plain, nude, unsheathed, pure(a), unfinished, stark(a), unadulterated, thoroughgoing(a), free, naked, bleak, unembellished, sodding(a), scanty, stark, utter(a), stern

   Antonyms:
   fertile, existent, existing, hospitable

3. barrenadjective

   not bearing offspring

   "a barren woman"; "learned early in his marriage that he was sterile"

   Synonyms:
   stark, bare, free, innocent, destitute, desolate, devoid, bleak

   Antonyms:
   existing, existent, hospitable, fertile

4. barren, destitute, devoid, free, innocentadjective

   completely wanting or lacking

   "writing barren of insight"; "young recruits destitute of experience"; "innocent of literary merit"; "the sentence was devoid of meaning"

   Synonyms:
   guiltless, gratis(p), ingenuous, innocuous, indigent, needy, impeccant, complimentary, destitute, loose, costless, liberal, free, stark, unacquainted(p), desolate, gratuitous, clean-handed, impoverished, detached, spare, innocent(p), innocent, poverty-stricken, sinless, devoid, bleak, bare, necessitous

   Antonyms:
   existent, hospitable, fertile, existing

Editors ContributionRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. empty

   wasteland; has no sight of plants, water, or any form of living things; lifeless

   "the barren wasteland was dry and lifeless"

   Submitted by anonymous on May 3, 2020  

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. barrenadjective

   Synonyms:
   unprolific, incapable of bearing offspring, not prolific

2. barrenadjective

   Synonyms:
   unfertile, fruitless, unproductive, sterile, ACARPOUS

3. barrenadjective

   Synonyms:
   scanty, not copious

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:4.0 / 1 vote

1. barrenadjective

   Synonyms:
   sterile, agenestic, infecund, unprolific, unprocreant, unproductive, unfruitful, unfertile, effete, desert, unprofitable, fruitless, unremunerative, empty, stupid, dull, unimaginative, prosaic, devoid, uninspiring, uninteresting

   Antonyms:
   prolific, fecund, virile, fruitful, fertile, teeming

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:3.0 / 1 vote

1. List of paraphrases for "barren":

   sterile, arid, infertile, bare, skinned, unproductive, tundra, tailings, desolate, semi-arid

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How to use barren in a sentence?

1. Paul Brooks, The Pursuit of Wilderness (1971):

   We shall never understand the natural environment until we see it as a living organism. Land can be healthy or sick, fertile or barren, rich or poor, lovingly nurtured or bled white. Our present attitudes and laws governing the ownership and use of land represent an abuse of the concept of private property.... Today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see and nobody calls the cops.

2. William Shakespeare, "The Tempest", Act 1 scene 1:

   Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.

3. Bertrand Russell:

   When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.

4. Omar Khayyám:

   You know, my friends, with what a brave carouse I made a Second Marriage in my house; favored old barren reason from my bed, and took the daughter of the vine to spouse.

5. Louis Pasteur:

   Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.