I. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a sharp/stark/strong contrast (= very great )
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There is a sharp contrast between the type of people who read the two newspapers.
a stark choice (= a choice between two unpleasant things that you must make )
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We faced a stark choice: steal or starve.
a stark warning
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Cigarette packets carry the stark warning ‘smoking kills’.
a stark/sharp reminder (= strong or unpleasant )
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This incident is a stark reminder of the dangers police officers face every day.
absolute/stark terror (= extreme terror )
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On his face was an expression of absolute terror.
in sharp/stark etc contrast
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We are still getting some sun, in marked contrast to last year’s everlasting grey skies.
stand in sharp/stark etc contrast to sth
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The mountains stand in stark contrast to the area around them.
stark naked ( also buck naked/naked as a jaybird American English ) (= completely naked )
stark raving mad (= completely crazy )
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My friends all think I’m stark raving mad .
the harsh/grim/stark reality (= conditions that are really very bad )
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We want to protect our children from the harsh reality of our violent world.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
more
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Over the 1960s the issue became more stark as the underlying position of visible trade worsened.
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Since these speeches were meant to be heard, not read, they seem more stark in print than they sounded.
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The contrast across the channel couldn't be more stark .
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The following day took me over more stark hills and across empty plains and plateaux.
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The contrast in styles could hardly have been more stark .
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The contrast could not be more stark between Spiro's Hollywood life-style and the North London suburb he once called home.
so
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He looked around the room where she had spent much of the last few years. So stark .
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At Carville, things were not quite so stark .
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In front of a consequence so stark the deepest political thinkers recoiled.
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It was the first time college basketball had witnessed so stark a racial contrast in a national final.
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In Theophile's case, however, the choice was not nearly so stark .
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The challenge for us is not so stark .
■ NOUN
choice
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Those who lived had a stark choice , submit, or ... flee into exile.
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The case presents a stark choice for the justices.
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They think stark choices are dangerous.
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N., we would face more and more often the stark choice between acting alone and doing nothing.
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The campaign would not be about personalities, he stressed, but about the stark choice between internationalism and nationalism.
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To present such stark choices on one's own, rather than in a formal Intervention, is commonly ineffective.
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In short, things would get worse, leaving a stark choice between civil war or martial law.
contrast
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It was a human approach to football management in stark contrast to conditions beyond the boundaries of Arsenal Stadium.
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The kids are mostly minorities; their bleak, impoverished lives stand in stark contrast to the mansions on their maps.
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They're in stark contrast to an earlier picture he'd rather forget.
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The differing tactics present a stark contrast .
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His white teeth and brown oval eyes stood out in stark contrast against his dark tanned skin.
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Is that not in stark contrast to Labour Members who trade on the squalor and misery of people who are not housed?
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This is in stark contrast to the fifties and sixties when loan capital formed an important part of corporate financing needs.
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This stark contrast is not invention, but it is none the less unhistorical.
fact
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For Budhoo deals in cold, stark facts .
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The photograph only records stark fact .
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The stark facts are spelt out in a recent copy of the Independent.
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They had access to the starker facts .
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There were no condolences, no flowery words, nothing but stark fact , not even the normal ending.
reality
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It was how I'd always imagined showbiz would be - far removed from the stark reality of Working Men's Clubs.
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As a nation, we are right to finally confront the stark reality of needless suffering among the dying.
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Faced with the stark reality of a choice between jobs or no jobs, the majority had elected to work.
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But the stark reality of the Highland scene described reminds me of another idyllic circumstance that went the rounds about this time.
relief
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The debt relief campaign throws into stark relief the central contradiction of globalisation: it is to do with time.
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In the darkness the angular planes of his face were thrown into stark relief .
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Somewhere below another flare exploded, its fresh glare lighting up in stark relief the yawning edge of the aircraft.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(stark) raving mad/bonkers
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All of this doesn't mean he wasn't stark raving mad, and just putting on.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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stark chrome furniture
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Ethnic divisions in the region remain stark .
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Gone are the gray industrial carpeting and the stark white walls.
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the stark beauty of the desert
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The waiting room was stark , with hard, stiff chairs and lit by a single lightbulb.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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As a nation, we are right to finally confront the stark reality of needless suffering among the dying.
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Her apartment was clean and stark in a Straight forward way.
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It was how I'd always imagined showbiz would be - far removed from the stark reality of Working Men's Clubs.
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Once or twice, soft stark footfalls went along the corridor.
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Others are put off by the stark social and economic differences between the two communities.
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The contrast between the lawyer and Scott was stark .
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They were stark dramas of the billion-footed city.
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This is in stark contrast to the fifties and sixties when loan capital formed an important part of corporate financing needs.
II. adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
naked
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I was stark naked and trussed up like a Haggis in mourning.
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The tormented Onna, stark naked , pushed the blade in and pulled it sideways.
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Adam struggled, but he was too weak and the storm-troopers tore his trousers off, leaving him stark naked .
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At that the quilt flew into the air and Joy and Janir erupted from it stark naked .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Adam struggled, but he was too weak and the storm-troopers tore his trousers off, leaving him stark naked.
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I was stark naked and trussed up like a Haggis in mourning.