Sterilisation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act or process of removing or destroying all forms of microbial life on an object or surface
2. A procedure that ensures an item or area is completely devoid of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms
3. The method by which all living microorganisms are eliminated to achieve complete cleanliness and safety

Etymology: "Sterilisation" is a plain English formation: "sterile" combined with the suffix "-ization" (or the verb "sterilize" plus "-ation"), with the British spelling "-isation" as the variant used in British English. "Sterile" comes from Latin "sterilis," meaning barren or unfruitful, the root sense that still survives when we speak of barren land or a sterile soil. The word "sterilisation" therefore began as a term about making something unable to produce, and only later came to mean the destruction of microbes. The shift from barrenness to germs is the real story here. Once a sterile field was one that would not yield a crop, a sterile person could not have children, and the verb "sterilize" carried that meaning of rendering something infertile. When bacteriology developed in the late nineteenth century, the same word was extended to cover killing microorganisms on instruments, bandages and surgical equipment, since a sterile object is one with no living germs left on it.

Synonyms: sanitization, disinfection, cleansing, purification, decontamination

Antonyms: contamination, pollution, infection, tainting, uncleanliness