mindmap root((不育)) sterile implies inability to reproduce or to bear fruit through or as if through an organic defect: a ~ imagination. barren basically applicable to a female or a marriage that does not produce offspring, may imply a lack of normal or expected return or profit: a ~ victory. impotent applies to the male and implies inability to copulate or reproduce: an operation that made him temporarily ~. unfruitful may replace barren in any of its applications with the emphasis on not bearing fruit: un ~ enterprise. infertile is often interchanged with sterile: an ~ egg; but it may imply deficiency rather than absence of fertility: an ~ strain of beef cattle.