1. The inability of two organisms or populations to produce fertile offspring when bred together; reproductive incompatibility between species or subspecies.
Usage: technical; biology

Examples

• Intersterility between the two plant species prevented them from producing viable seeds.
• The intersterility of horses and cattle demonstrates their genetic distance.
• Scientists use intersterility as evidence that two populations have diverged into separate species.
• Intersterility barriers help define species boundaries in evolutionary biology.
• The intersterility observed in laboratory crosses suggested the organisms belonged to different species.