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obsolescence

[ob-suh-les-uh ns]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR obsolescence ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the state, process, or condition of being or becoming obsolete.

Origin of obsolescence

First recorded in 1820–30; obsolesc(ent) + -ence

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for obsolescence

annihilation, elimination, destruction, discontinuance, desuetude, obsoleteness, death

Examples from the Web for obsolescence

Contemporary Examples of obsolescence

In doing so, he implied the obsolescence of that most embedded of British watering holes, the pub.
Beer Countries vs. Wine Countries
Clive Irving
December 7, 2014
These passages feel the most lived in; aging, for Rebecca Winter, is less frightening than obsolescence.
This Week’s Hot Reads: Jan. 27, 2014
Thomas Flynn
January 27, 2014
(That infrastructure, by the way, comes with assorted vandalism, obsolescence, and parking logistics issues).
Electric Vehicles May Be the Green Car of the Future, But Hybrids Are the Green Car of the Present
Megan McArdle
January 24, 2013
And therein lies a tale of fragility and obsolescence that can be told in two tidy charts.
Struggling PC Maker Dell Might Be Candidate for Private-Equity Buyout
Daniel Gross
January 14, 2013
Or at least they should, if they are not to follow the path to obsolescence.
What Apple Must Do to Survive
Zachary Karabell
October 7, 2011

Historical Examples of obsolescence

Petzholdt's Bibliotheca bibliographica is a classified bibliography that shows signs of obsolescence.
A History of Bibliographies of Bibliographies
Archer Taylor
This operation has naturally declined in vogue with the obsolescence of blood-letting as a remedy.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 8
Various
Yet even in those words which do not become common there is very little tendency to obsolescence in the King James version.
The Greatest English Classic
Cleland Boyd McAfee
In nearly all cases structural remnants of eyes admit of being detected, in various degrees of obsolescence.
Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol. 1 and 3, of 3)
George John Romanes
Some may enjoy a second life; most of them will feel only the weakness of a second obsolescence.
English: Composition and Literature
W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

Word Origin and History for obsolescence

n.

1809; see obsolescent + -ence. Phrase Planned obsolescence coined 1932, revived as a disparaging term 1950s.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

obsolescence in Culture

obsolescence

[(ob-suh-les-uhns)]

A decline in the value of equipment or of a product brought about by an introduction of new technology or by changes in demand. (See planned obsolescence.)

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.