barrenness

Examples

• All

• The arts enhance our ability to be productive citizens, to be creative, and to avoid the barrenness of life.

  Academic text (1995)

• She felt a sense of barrenness after losing her job, unable to find purpose in her daily routine.

• It's the very barrenness of this place that brings us together.

  Kursk (2018)

• What the Children of Israel first see when they view the desert is absolute barrenness.

  Academic text (1993)

• Because of the barrenness of the great hall, Claude assumed the rest of the property would have a similarly dungeon-like aspect.

  Fiction book (1992)

• All that's left to them as regards their natural aspect is the barrenness, the nakedness of their immediate existence.

• The consequent barrenness of the movement's strategic planning was illustrated by the failure of the Whitelaw-PIRA talks in 1972.

  Academic text (2000)

• The space is vast enough to swallow the small pockets of tourists; it is a sinister, unnerving barrenness.

  Fiction book (1994)

• A depressing atmosphere of parting began to dominate their meetings and conversations, together with a feeling of barrenness and hopelessness.

  Fiction book (1998)

• Silently acknowledging the barrenness of the surroundings, the advertisements covered every available wall, post, and boulder.

  Fiction book (1992)

Synonyms

E

emptiness

vsbarrenness

58 5.3

A feeling that life has no meaning

is about failure to produce value rather than just lack of meaning

D

drought

vsbarrenness

15 3.8

A long time without something people want, for example success

frames a long time without production rather than general unproductivity

P

paucity

vsbarrenness

• Formal

7 8.6

A small amount of something that is not enough

concerns inability to produce value rather than low quantity alone

F

fruitlessness

vsbarrenness

1 7.3

Lack of results or success after effort

focuses more widely on producing no valuable outcome

V

vacuousness

vsbarrenness

• Formal

1 9.2

A state of being empty of meaning and thought

is about inability to produce useful outcomes rather than empty ideas

U

unfruitfulness

vsbarrenness

7.0

A state of not producing useful things like crops or ideas

is the general state of not producing anything of value

U

unproductiveness

vsbarrenness

7.1

Not doing much useful work or making progress

stresses inability to create anything of real value

A

aridity

vsbarrenness

8.1

A lack of ideas, energy, or interest in speech and writing

focuses on practical inability to produce valuable results

W

wasteness

vsbarrenness

• Archaic

9.8

Land with no plants or people, appearing empty and lifeless

applies more generally to failure to produce value beyond land

Antonyms

C

creativity

213 3.4

The ability to use imagination to make new ideas or things

P

productivity

• Specialized

211 4.0

How much work, goods, or services are produced for the time and effort used

How Productive

fruitfulness

1 4.0

productivity

• Specialized

211 4.0

barrenness

1 8.1

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology