How do you use the word "stark" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "stark" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "stark": You ought to face the stark reality. My little brother ran through the living room stark naked.

Stark Meaning

/stɑɹk/

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

adjHard, firm; obdurate.

adjSevere; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather).

Sentence Examples

You ought to face the stark reality.

My little brother ran through the living room stark naked.

The author paints a stark picture of life in a prison camp.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

plain crude blunt

Antonyms:

fancy conditional

CEFR Practice Quiz

After the fire, the once green hills looked ____, with nothing but blackened earth.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

There was a ____ contrast between the luxury of the hotel and the poverty of the neighborhood nearby.

Word Origin & History

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.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything." — 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:

"Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer." — c. 1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger [et al.?], “Beggars Bush”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii:

"a stark, moss-trooping Scot" — 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

"His heauie head, deuoide of carefull carke, / Whose sences all were straight benumbd and starke." — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 44:

"Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff / Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies." — c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words