What term describes an area free of all organisms, including spores and viruses?

The term that describes an area free of all organisms, including spores and viruses, is "sterile." Sterility indicates that the environment or surface has undergone processes to eliminate all forms of microbial life, thereby ensuring that no viable microorganisms are present. This is crucial in medical and laboratory settings where the presence of any organism, even in minute numbers, can pose a risk to safety or experiment integrity.

While "sterilized" is similar and often used interchangeably in everyday language, the term specifically refers to the process or action taken to achieve sterility, rather than the state itself. "Contaminated" indicates the presence of unwanted organisms, which directly contradicts the concept of sterility. "Sanitized" implies reducing the number of microorganisms to a safe level but does not ensure complete absence of all microbes, hence it does not meet the criteria of being sterile. Thus, the most accurate term for describing a completely organism-free area is "sterile."