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stark.

Hard, firm; obdurate.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/stɑɹk/General-American/stɑːk/Received-Pronunciation

  1. Hard, firm; obdurate.

    obsolete

  2. Severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather).

  3. Strong; vigorous; powerful.

    archaic · literary · poetic

  4. Stiff, rigid.

  5. Plain in appearance; barren, desolate.

    I picked my way forlornly through the stark, sharp rocks.

  6. Naked.

  7. Complete, absolute, full.

    I screamed in stark terror.
    A flower was growing, in stark contrast, out of the sidewalk.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, rigid, unyielding, obstinate, hard, strong, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz (“stiff, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sterc (“strong”), Dutch sterk (“strong”), Low German sterk (“strong”), German stark (“strong”), Danish stærk (“strong”), Swedish stark (“strong”), Norwegian sterk (“strong”), Icelandic sterkur (“strong”). Related to starch. In the phrase stark naked: an alternation of Middle English stert naked, from stert (“tail”), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.

adv/stɑɹk/General-American/stɑːk/Received-Pronunciation

  1. Starkly; entirely, absolutely.

    not-comparable
    He's gone stark, staring mad.
    She was just standing there, stark naked.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, rigid, unyielding, obstinate, hard, strong, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz (“stiff, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sterc (“strong”), Dutch sterk (“strong”), Low German sterk (“strong”), German stark (“strong”), Danish stærk (“strong”), Swedish stark (“strong”), Norwegian sterk (“strong”), Icelandic sterkur (“strong”). Related to starch. In the phrase stark naked: an alternation of Middle English stert naked, from stert (“tail”), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.

verb/stɑɹk/General-American/stɑːk/Received-Pronunciation

  1. To stiffen.

    dialectal · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English starken, from Old English stearcian (“to stiffen, become hard, grow stiff or hard”), from Proto-Germanic *starkōną, *starkēną (“to stiffen, become hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with German erstarken (“to strengthen”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.