adjective

stark

STARK/stɑːrk/

Stripped of softening detail or decoration.

The stark room contains only a hard wooden chair against bare walls.

A stark empty room with bare pale walls, one hard wooden chair and severe window light, no decoration.

Etymology

Old English stearc joined physical stiffness with harshness and severity. The modern sense combines that severity with the later meaning “bare, barren,” describing something stripped of softness or ornament.

In context

The Scottish Parliament79:24

there is a stark reality about continuing to load a system with new and more commitments when the overall resource is shrinking

Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee - 14 December 2017

More examples

Colorful pillows soften the stark white interior.
Without its trees, the hillside looks starker.
She describes prison life in stark, unsentimental prose.

Forms

stark · starker · starkest

starkness noun — The quality of being harshly bare.

starkly adverb — In a bare or severely plain manner.

Similar words

bare: Emphasizes missing coverings or furnishings, without necessarily suggesting harshness.
austere: Suggests strict simplicity and deliberate avoidance of comfort or luxury.
unadorned: Means lacking decoration, without the same suggestion of severity.