Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Bare or blunt: "His language has become increasingly stark, to the point of sounding strident” ( Robert Pear).
- adj. Complete or utter; extreme: stark poverty; a stark contrast.
- adj. Harsh; grim: "faced with that stark future” ( Robert C. McFarlane). "[They] found it hard to accept such a stark portrait of unrelieved failure” ( W. Bruce Lincoln).
- adv. Utterly; entirely: stark raving mad.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Stiff; rigid, as in death.
- Stubborn; stiff; severe.
- Stout; stalwart; strong; powerful.
- Great; long.
- Entire; perfect; utter; downright; sheer; pure; mere.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely: used with a few particular adjectives, as stark dead, stark blind, stark drunk, stark mad, stark naked, rarely with other adjectives.
- To make stark, stiff, or rigid, as in death.
- Naked; bare.
Wiktionary
- adj. obsolete Hard, firm; obdurate.
- adj. Severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather).
- adj. archaic Strong; vigorous; powerful.
- adj. Stiff, rigid.
- adj. Hard in appearance; barren, desolate.
- adj. Complete, absolute, full.
- adv. starkly; entirely, absolutely
- v. To stiffen.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Stiff; rigid.
- adj. obsolete Complete; absolute; full; perfect; entire.
- adj. Strong; vigorous; powerful.
- adj. obsolete Severe; violent; fierce.
- adj. Mere; sheer; gross; entire; downright.
- adv. Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite.
- v. rare To stiffen.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. devoid of any qualifications or disguise or adornment
- adv. completely.
- adj. without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers
- adj. complete or extreme
- adj. providing no shelter or sustenance
- adj. severely simple
Etymologies
- From Middle English starken, from Old English stearcian ("to stiffen, become hard, grow stiff or hard"), from Proto-Germanic *starkōnan, *starkēnan (“to stiffen, become hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with German erstarken ("to strengthen"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, stiff, severe, strong, from Old English stearc. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“She heard the slide of his zipper and her heart seized, the pulse skittering in her throat as she gazed up at his hungry face, his expression stark and pained.”
“His expression stark, he admitted, “Just two nights ago, I…I almost strangled her to death while I slept.””
“Stepping closer, Worf appraised her with an expression of stark admiration.”
Simon & Schuster: Star Trek: Typhon Pact Paths of Disharmony
“Mr. Reynolds 'opinions are in stark contrast to the core values of the Champaign County Republican Party and are personally offensive to me," party Chairman Jason Barickman told the News-Gazette.”
“Galbraith's proposal does stand in stark contrast with the rumored position of the fiscal commission.”
“Though he became a crusading liberal strategist, Stern and Wermiel show that his private conduct, especially his long-standing refusal to appoint female clerks, sometimes stood in stark contradiction to his constitutional principles.”
The Washington Post: Justice William Brennan, a liberal lion who wouldn't hire women
“The poverty among Alaska natives stands in stark contrast to the richness of their culture and the raw, stunning beauty of their ancestral lands.”
“This is a positive trend, he said, because "household balance sheets are getting better" in stark contrast to the credit gluttony that characterized the boom years.”
“She also shares his willingness to pummel President Obama in stark, disdainful tones, not so much criticizing as taunting him.”
“Update Kaiser Health News is reporting that "America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, the two largest insurance industry groups, released a letter today that 'laid down a marker on health care, warning in stark terms that a proposed government insurance plan would dismantle the employer coverage Americans have relied on for a half century and overtake the system.”
Wonk Room » The Role Of Private Insurers In Public-Private Competition
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘stark’.
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 221 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Conlangs and Fantasy Languages
Names of constructed languages (excluding Tolkien's, which get a list of their own) and languages presented only in works of fiction. I'm going to be flexible about what gets listed and include bot...
esperanto, volapük, idiom neutral, latino sine flexione, ido, occidental, interlingue, interlingua, novial, glosa, adjuvilo, afrihili and 223 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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cindywrites's Words
chiaroscuro, mollycoddle, feckless, evocative, provocative, invocation, beckon, allay, becalm, console, lull, soothe and 479 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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spazgirl's words
dilettante, elegy, derelict, evince, solicitous, shibboleth, exculpate, karma, animadversion, arrogate, effrontery, grouse and 114 more...
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GRE AWA
escalating, vehement, vehemence, hostility, paparazzi, regime, irrespective, scoop, exaggerated, overblown, unfetter, scrupulous and 272 more...
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jagosaurus's favorites
Words I like mostly because of the way they sound and feel.
ticonderoga, petulance, snark, estimable, chickahominy, feline, gezellig, gneiss, shit, willy-nilly, shelter, coda and 366 more...
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Naresh_Gre
The path meanders through the vineyards
meander, labyrinth, Sinuous, gyrate, caron, awry, credo, banter, juxtaposition, argot, inexorable, foibles and 223 more...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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GRE
acrimony, verisimilitude, tenebrious, tenebrous, dishabille, unfettered, deplorable, woebegone, credulity, naïveté, mitigate, meliorate and 475 more...
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Joshee Word List
gash, engross, entail, stoke, ode, vacillate, aspersion, asperity, clan, kith, prospect, nag and 229 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for stark.
whichbe A contranym: both fullness ("completeness, exemplary") and emptiness ("lacking"). Aug 1, 2008