Refine this word faster
Stark
Definitions
- 1 Hard, firm; obdurate. obsolete
- 2 Severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather).
"Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything."
- 3 Strong; vigorous; powerful. archaic, literary, poetic
"Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer."
- 4 Stiff, rigid.
"His heauie head, deuoide of carefull carke, / Whose sences all were straight benumbd and starke."
- 5 Plain in appearance; barren, desolate.
"I picked my way forlornly through the stark, sharp rocks."
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 Naked.
"They bore me to a cavern in the hill Beneath that column, and unbound me there; And one did strip me stark; and one did fill A vessel from the putrid pool; one bare A lighted torch, and four with friendless care Guided my steps the cavern-paths along […]"
- 7 Complete, absolute, full.
"I screamed in stark terror."
- 1 devoid of any qualifications or disguise or adornment wordnet
- 2 providing no shelter or sustenance wordnet
- 3 without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers wordnet
- 4 complete or extreme wordnet
- 5 severely simple wordnet
- 1 Starkly; entirely, absolutely. not-comparable
"He's gone stark, staring mad."
- 1 to the fullest degree wordnet
- 1 A surname. countable, uncountable
- 2 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Butts County, Georgia. countable, uncountable
- 3 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Stark County, Illinois. countable, uncountable
- 4 A number of places in the United States:; A tiny city in Neosho County, Kansas. countable, uncountable
- 5 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Elliott County, Kentucky. countable, uncountable
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Pike County, Missouri. countable, uncountable
- 7 A number of places in the United States:; A small town in Coos County, New Hampshire. countable, uncountable
- 8 A number of places in the United States:; A small town in Herkimer County, New York, named after John Stark. countable, uncountable
- 9 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Boone County, West Virginia. countable, uncountable
- 10 A number of places in the United States:; A small town in Vernon County, Wisconsin. countable, uncountable
- 1 The language spoken in the Ender's Game series, which is nearly identical to American English. uncountable
- 1 To stiffen. dialectal, obsolete
Etymology
From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, rigid, unyielding, obstinate, hard, strong, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz (“stiff, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sterc (“strong”), Dutch sterk (“strong”), Low German sterk (“strong”), German stark (“strong”), Danish stærk (“strong”), Swedish stark (“strong”), Norwegian sterk (“strong”), Icelandic sterkur (“strong”). Related to starch. In the phrase stark naked: an alternation of Middle English stert naked, from stert (“tail”), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.
From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, rigid, unyielding, obstinate, hard, strong, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz (“stiff, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sterc (“strong”), Dutch sterk (“strong”), Low German sterk (“strong”), German stark (“strong”), Danish stærk (“strong”), Swedish stark (“strong”), Norwegian sterk (“strong”), Icelandic sterkur (“strong”). Related to starch. In the phrase stark naked: an alternation of Middle English stert naked, from stert (“tail”), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.
From Middle English starken, from Old English stearcian (“to stiffen, become hard, grow stiff or hard”), from Proto-Germanic *starkōną, *starkēną (“to stiffen, become hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with German erstarken (“to strengthen”).
* As a Scottish and English surname, from the adjective stark. * As a Jewish, German, and Swedish surname, from stark (“strong”), related to the above. This surname also appears in Czech and Slovak as Štark.
* As a Scottish and English surname, from the adjective stark. * As a Jewish, German, and Swedish surname, from stark (“strong”), related to the above. This surname also appears in Czech and Slovak as Štark.
See also for "stark"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: stark