arid

adjective

ar·​id ˈa-rəd How to pronounce arid (audio)
ˈer-əd
1
: excessively dry
specifically : having insufficient rainfall to support agriculture
an arid region
2
: lacking in interest and life : jejune
arid textbooks
aridity noun
aridness
ˈa-rəd-nəs How to pronounce arid (audio)
ˈer-əd-
noun

Examples of arid in a Sentence

a dull and arid textbook an arid speech about duty and responsibility
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Satellite imagery captured on March 4, published by NASA showed clouds of dust appearing to originate from arid landscapes in northern Mexico and West Texas. Tommy Tuberville, Newsweek, 6 Mar. 2025 When hiking or driving through the park, keep an eye out for all of the amazing wildlife that live in this high-elevation, arid ecosystem—just don’t feed them. Lydia Mansel, Travel + Leisure, 2 Mar. 2025 Swerve past arid mesa tops and cow pastures all the way to your destination. Emily Pennington, Outside Online, 28 Feb. 2025 Similar to the Colorado river in northern Arizona, the Charyn River and its tributaries spent millions of years eroding the arid landscape into crazy shapes and a palette of rocky reds, oranges, ochers, yellows, and whites. Joe Yogerst, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for arid

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French & Latin; French aride, going back to Middle French, borrowed from Latin āridus, ārdus "dry, waterless, withered, austere (of style)," derivative, with the adjective suffix -idus, of ārēre "to be dry, parched, withered," going back to Indo-European *h2eh1s-eh1-, stative derivative of a verbal base *h2eh1s- "make dry with heat," whence also Tocharian A asatär "(it) dries up," Tocharian B osotär; also from the same base a root noun *h2eh1s-, whence Hittite ḫāšš- "ashes, dust," from which as thematic derivatives Sanskrit ā́saḥ "ashes, dust," and (as a collective or noun of appurtenance?) *h2eh1s-eh2-, whence Latin āra "altar," Oscan aasaí (locative), Hittite ḫāššā- "hearth," Old High German essa, esse "forge" (from *asjō-), Old Swedish æsia, æssia "smith's fire," Old Icelandic esja "soapstone (used in hearths)" (both from *asjōn-)

Note: Regarding the apparent derivatives ardēre "to burn, emit light or flame" and ardor "burning, fierce heat," see ardent. — Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben gives the "essive" (= stative) form of the verbal base *h2eh1s as *h2h1s-h1i̯é- and attributes the length in Latin ārēre to the influence of noun derivatives such as āra. D. Adams, however, regards the original base in Tocharian A and B to have been *ās-, corresponding to the length in the Latin verb (see A Dictionary of Tocharian B, Revised and Greatly Enlarged, Rodopi, 2013, p. 63). A. Kloekhorst (Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon, Brill, 2008, pp. 322-23) regards the short vowel in Germanic as the residue of an oblique case form *h1h2s- of the root noun. See also ash entry 2, azalea.

First Known Use

1652, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of arid was in 1652

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Cite this Entry

“Arid.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arid. Accessed 16 Mar. 2025.

Kids Definition

arid

adjective
ar·​id ˈar-əd How to pronounce arid (audio)
: very dry
especially : not having enough rainfall to support agriculture
aridity noun

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