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

How to pronounce barren?

How to say barren in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use barren in a sentence?

1. George Eliot:

   Comprehensive talkers are apt to be tiresome when we are not athirst for information; but, to be quite fair, we must admit that superior reticence is a good deal due to lack of matter. Speech is often barren, but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full nest. Your still fowl, blinking at you without remark, may all the while be sitting on one addled nest-egg; and, when it takes to cackling, will have nothing to announce but that addled delusion.

2. Luxon Mabvongwe:

   Livestock was our bank because people expected to sell and raise money for school fees, but they are all dying and there are no pastures. If you look around you, it's just barren.

3. Taposh Kumar Roy:

   Large-sized solar power plants need a huge area of land to install solar panels. In Bangladesh such barren field is hardly available. Our policy is to set up such plants only in non-agriculture lands to keep food production unhampered.

4. 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.

5. Goa Kerle:

   We go hungry because we keep expecting fruit from barren lands.