Definitions for Barren
ˈbær ənbar·ren

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:3.1 / 7 votes

1. barren, waste, wastelandadjective

   an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation

   "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert"

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"

3. barrenadjective

   not bearing offspring

   "a barren woman"; "learned early in his marriage that he was sterile"

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"

WiktionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. barrennoun

   An area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place.

   The pine barrens are a site lonely enough to suit any hermit.

2. barrenadjective

   unable to bear children; sterile

   I silently wept as my daughter's husband rejected her. What would she do now that she was no longer a maiden but also barren?

3. barrenadjective

   of poor fertility, infertile

4. barrenadjective

   bleak

5. barrenadjective

   not productive

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. BARRENadjective

   properly applied to trees or ground unfruitful.

   Etymology: bare , Sax. naked;

   1. Without the quality of producing its kind; not prolifick; applied to animals.

   They hail’d him father to a line of kings.
   Upon my head they plac’d a fruitless crown,
   And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
   No son of mine succeeding. William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

   There shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. Deuter. vii. 14.

   2. Unfruitful; not fertile; sterile.

   The situation of this city is pleasant, but the water is naught, and the ground barren. 2 Kings, ii. 19.

   Telemachus is far from exalting the nature of his country; he confesses it to be barren. Alexander Pope, Odyssey, b. iv. notes.

   From his far excursion thro’ the wilds
   Of barren ether, faithful to his time,
   They see the blazing wonder rise anew. James Thomson, Summer.

   3. Not copious; scanty.

   Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter, but prove to be fruitful. Jonathan Swift.

   4. Unmeaning; uninventive; dull.

   There be of them that will make themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too. William Shakespeare.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. barren

   Barren refers to an unproductive, desolate, or uninhabited place, incapable of sustaining life or growth. It can also refer to someone or something unable of producing results, offspring, or regrowth. In another context, it describes a female (in humans or animals) unable to have children.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Barrenadjective

   incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- said of women and female animals

2. Barrenadjective

   not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; /rile

3. Barrenadjective

   unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty

4. Barrenadjective

   mentally dull; stupid

5. Barrennoun

   a tract of barren land

6. Barrennoun

   elevated lands or plains on which grow small trees, but not timber; as, pine barrens; oak barrens. They are not necessarily sterile, and are often fertile

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Barren

   bar′en, adj. incapable of bearing offspring: unfruitful: dull, stupid: unprofitable (with of).—adj. Bar′ren-beat′en.—adv. Bar′renly.—n. Bar′renness.—adjs. Bar′ren-spir′ited; Bar′ren-wit′ted. [O. Fr. barain, brahain, brehaing, perh. from bar, man, as if 'male-like, not producing offspring.']

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. BARREN

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Barren is ranked #25459 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Barren surname appeared 971 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Barren.
   
   52.4% or 509 total occurrences were White.
   37.3% or 363 total occurrences were Black.
   7.9% or 77 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   1.3% or 13 total occurrences were of two or more races.

How to pronounce Barren?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Barren in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Barren in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Barren in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of Barren in a Sentence

1. from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Translation by Edward Fitzgerald):

   You know, my Friends, with what a brave CarouseI made a Second Marriage in my house; Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed,And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse.For "Is" and "Is-not" though with Rule and LineAnd "Up-and-down" by Logic I define, Of all that one should care to fathom, IWas never deep in anything but - Wine.

2. Sir Arthur Helps:

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Joseph J. Lamb:

   The road to success leads through the valley of humility, and the path is up the ladder of patience and across the wide barren plains of perseverance. As yet, no short cut has ever been discovered.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Barren
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Barren
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=Barren
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Barren
6. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=Barren
7. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
   https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html