sterilisation

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun the act of making an organism barren or infertile (unable to reproduce)
noun the procedure of making some object free of live bacteria or other microorganisms (usually by heat or chemical means)

Terrible theories of doomed incurable sin and predestined loss warned her that an evil stock will only beget contamination: the children of the mad must be liable to madness; the children of the depraved, bent towards depravity; the seed of the poison-plant springs up to blast and ruin, only to be overcome by uprooting and sterilisation, or by the judicious grafting, the patient training of many years. — Emily Brontë, A. Mary F. (Agnes Mary Frances) Robinson

sterilization

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