Barrenness

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The property of being barren; the property of not supporting life. uncountable, usually

    "‘She has come with a garment of sorrow and barrenness; she will return with a garment of twins.’"

  2. 2
    the quality of yielding nothing of value wordnet
  3. 3
    the state (usually of a woman) of having no children or being unable to have children wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
ariditybirth controlcontraceptiondeadnessdearthdesolation

Example

More examples

"And when a famine came in the land, after that barrenness which had happened in the days of Abraham, Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Palestines, to Gerara."

Etymology

From Middle English bareynnesse; equivalent to barren + -ness.

More for "barrenness"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.