stark

[ stahrk ]
/ stɑrk /

adjective, stark·er, stark·est.

adverb

utterly, absolutely, or quite: stark mad.
Chiefly Scot. and North England. in a stark manner; stoutly or vigorously.

Origin of stark

before 900; (adj.) Middle English; Old English stearc stiff, firm; cognate with German stark strong; akin to Old Norse sterkr strong; akin to starch, stare; (adv.) Middle English sterke, derivative of the adj.

synonym study for stark

2, 3. See austere, bare1.

OTHER WORDS FROM stark

stark·ly, adverb stark·ness, noun

Definition for stark (2 of 2)

Stark
[ stahrk; for 2 also German shtahrk ]
/ stɑrk; for 2 also German ʃtɑrk /

noun

Harold Rayns·ford [reynz-ferd] /ˈreɪnz fərd/,1880–1972, U.S. admiral.
Jo·han·nes [yoh-hah-nuh s] /yoʊˈhɑ nəs/,1874–1957, German physicist: Nobel prize 1919.
John,1728–1822, American Revolutionary War general.

Example sentences from the Web for stark

British Dictionary definitions for stark (1 of 2)

stark
/ (stɑːk) /

adjective

adverb

completely stark mad

Derived forms of stark

starkly, adverb starkness, noun

Word Origin for stark

Old English stearc stiff; related to Old Norse sterkr, Gothic gastaurknan to stiffen

British Dictionary definitions for stark (2 of 2)

Stark

noun

(stɑːk) Dame Freya (Madeline) (ˈfreɪə). 1893–1993, British traveller and writer, whose many books include The Southern Gates of Arabia (1936), Beyond Euphrates (1951), and The Journey's Echo (1963)
(German ʃtark) Johannes (joˈhanəs). 1874–1957, German physicist, who discovered the splitting of the lines of a spectrum when the source of light is subjected to a strong electrostatic field (Stark effect, 1913): Nobel prize for physics 1919