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. Sir Arthur Helps:

   Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away.

2. Goa Kerle:

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

3. 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.

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. 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.