sterilization has 1 distinct synonym spread across 2 of its 2 senses. Each sense below keeps its own list, because a synonym belongs to a meaning and not to a word: swapping one sense's substitute into another sense's sentence is how a thesaurus makes writing worse. WordNet records no antonym for it — antonymy is a relation between word forms rather than concepts, so it is deliberately sparse.
Counts are distinct word forms across every sense. A synonym that appears under three senses is counted once here and shown three times below, under each sense it belongs to.
the act of making an organism barren or infertile (unable to reproduce)
the procedure of making some object free of live bacteria or other microorganisms (usually by heat or chemical means)
Synonyms, antonyms and the broader and narrower relations for sterilization come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Full sources and licences.