What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Barren vs Fallow - What's the difference?

barren | fallow | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between barren and fallow

is that barren is unable to bear children; sterile while fallow is ploughed but left unseeded for more than one planting season.

As nouns the difference between barren and fallow

is that barren is an area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place while fallow is ground ploughed and harrowed but left unseeded for one year.

As a verb fallow is

to make land fallow for agricultural purposes.

barren

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (label) Unable to bear children; sterile.
    • I silently wept as my daughter's husband rejected her. What would she do now that she was no longer a maiden but also barren ?
  • Of poor fertility, infertile; not producing vegetation.
  • * (1800–1859)
    • barren mountain tracts
  • * '>citation
  • Bleak.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./4/2
    • , passage=As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.}}
  • Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.
  • * (1796-1859)
    • brilliant but barren reveries
  • * (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
    • Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 2, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
    • , title= Bulgaria 0-3 England , passage=Rooney had been suffered a barren spell for England with only one goal in 15 games but he was in no mood to ignore the gifts on offer in front of an increasingly subdued Bulgarian support.}}
  • Mentally dull; stupid.
  • * (William Shakespeare), (Hamlet), III.ii. ca. 1602
    • Set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too.

    Synonyms

    * sterile

    Antonyms

    * fertile * fruitful

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place.
    • The pine barrens are a site lonely enough to suit any hermit.

    fallow

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) falow, from (etyl) ).

    Noun

  • (agriculture, uncountable) Ground ploughed and harrowed but left unseeded for one year.
  • (agriculture, uncountable) Uncultivated land.
  • (agriculture, obsolete, countable) An area of fallow land.
  • The ploughing or tilling of land, without sowing it for a season.
  • * Sinclair
    • By a complete summer fallow', land is rendered tender and mellow. The ' fallow gives it a better tilth than can be given by a fallow crop.
    Derived terms
    * bastard fallow * cropped fallow * dead-fallow * ecofallow * fallow-break * fallow chat * fallow crop * fallow-field * fallow finch * fallow ground * fallowist * fallow land * green fallow * pin-fallow * rag-fallow * summer fallow * winter fallow

    Adjective

    (head)
  • (of agricultural land) Ploughed but left unseeded for more than one planting season.
  • Inactive; undeveloped.
    • Derived terms
    * apple-fallow * fallow chat * fallow finch * fallowness * lay fallow * lie fallow

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make land fallow for agricultural purposes.
    • Derived terms
    * fallowed * fallowing * re-fallow * thry-fallow * trifallow * twifallow, twyfallow

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) falwe, from (etyl) fealu, from (etyl) 'pale'.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of a pale red or yellow, light brown; dun.
    • a fallow deer or greyhound
    (Shakespeare)
    Related terms
    * fallow deer

    References

    * English terms with multiple etymologies