Link Centre Dictionary

stark

UK/stɑːk/ US/stɑɹk/ fairly common literary
adjective (5) adverb (1)

adjective

1.

devoid of any qualifications or disguise or adornment

  • “the blunt truth”
  • “the crude facts”
  • “facing the stark reality of the deadline”
Synonyms
Similar
2.

severely simple

  • “a stark interior”
Synonyms
Similar
3.

complete or extreme

  • “stark poverty”
  • “a stark contrast”
Similar
4.

without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers

  • “an arrant fool”
  • “a complete coward”
  • “a consummate fool”
  • “a double-dyed villain”
  • “gross negligence”
  • “a perfect idiot”
  • “pure folly”
  • “what a sodding mess”
  • “stark staring mad”
  • “a thoroughgoing villain”
  • “utter nonsense”
  • “the unadulterated truth”
Synonyms
Similar
5.

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”
Synonyms
Similar

adverb

1.

completely

  • “stark mad”
  • “mouth stark open”

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • Phony Stark
  • Stark City
  • Stark County
  • Stark-Einstein law

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.