Word of the Day,

stark \stahrk\,
adjective:
1. extremely simple or severe: a stark interior.
2. sheer, utter, downright, or complete: stark madness.
3. harsh, grim, or desolate, as a view, place, etc.: a stark landscape.
4. bluntly or sternly plain; not softened or glamorized: the stark reality of the schedule's deadline.
5. stiff or rigid in substance, muscles, etc.
6. rigid in death.
7. Archaic. strong; powerful; massive or robust.

adverb:
1. utterly, absolutely, or quite: stark mad.
2. Chiefly Scot. and North England. in a stark manner; stoutly or vigorously.

His office was stark in comparison to Valek's and lacked personal decorations. The only object in the room that did not have a specific purpose was a hand-size statue of a black snow cat.
-- Maria V. Snyder, Poison Study, 2005

I thought of how clouds sometimes race across the sunlit canyons formed by the steep sides of skyscrapers, so that the stark divisions of dark and light are shot through with passing light and dark.
-- Teju Cole, Open City, 2001

From the Proto-Indo-European root ster- meaning "stiff" or "rigid," stark entered English around the year 1000. It shares its root with the word stare.

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