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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sterilization.

The process of treating something to kill or inactivate microorganisms.

13 characters5 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun
  1. The process of treating something to kill or inactivate microorganisms.

    British · English · Oxford · US · uncountable
    Heat sterilization is used during canning so the food can be safely stored for long periods.
  2. A procedure to permanently prevent an organism from reproducing.

    British · English · Oxford · US · uncountable
    Spaying a cat is a form of sterilization to limit the population growth.
  3. An instance of a sterilization procedure.

    British · English · Oxford · US · countable
    The vet performed several sterilizations this week.
  4. A monetary policy operation used to offset a foreign exchange intervention.

    British · English · Oxford · US · uncountable
    The Federal Reserve is responsible for foreign exchange sterilization.
  5. The process of permanently rendering a planet like Earth completely uninhabitable to all life, including even microbes, leading to their complete extinction.

    British · English · Oxford · US · uncountable
    In about 1 billion years, the increasing heat from the Sun as it gradually ages, by triggering a runaway greenhouse effect that will boil away the oceans, will lead to the complete sterilization of all life on Earth.
Where this word comes from

From sterile + -ization or sterilize + -ation.

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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.