Sterilization may refer to:

  • Sterilization (microbiology), killing or inactivation of micro-organisms
  • Soil steam sterilization, a farming technique that sterilizes soil with steam in open fields or greenhouses
  • Sterilization (medicine) renders a human unable to reproduce
  • Neutering is the surgical sterilization of animals
  • Irradiation induced sterility is used in the sterile insect technique
  • A chemosterilant is a chemical compound that causes sterility
  • Sterilization (economics), central bank operations aimed at neutralizing foreign exchange operations' impact on domestic money supply, or offset adverse consequences of large capital flows
  • A very severe enough extinction event that permanently renders a planet like Earth completely uninhabitable to even microbial life.

See also

  • Sterility (physiology)