stagnate
Americanverb (used without object)
-
stagnates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
stagnated,
past participle, past
-
stagnating
present participle
-
to cease to run or flow, as water, air, etc.
-
to be or become stale or foul from standing, as a pool of water.
-
to stop developing, growing, progressing, or advancing.
My mind is stagnating from too much TV.
-
to be or become sluggish and dull.
When the leading lady left, the show started to stagnate.
verb (used with object)
-
stagnates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
stagnated,
past participle, past
-
stagnating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
stagnatesimple
-
stagnatessimple
-
have stagnatedperfect
-
has stagnatedperfect
-
am stagnatingprogressive
-
are stagnatingprogressive
-
is stagnatingprogressive
-
have been stagnatingperfect progressive
-
has been stagnatingperfect progressive
Past
-
stagnatedsimple
-
had stagnatedperfect
-
was stagnatingprogressive
-
were stagnatingprogressive
-
had been stagnatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stagnate
1660–70; < Latin stāgnātus (past participle of stāgnāre ), equivalent to stāgn ( um ) pool of standing water + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
If after high school you choose to live in your parents' house, keep the same job, and spend time with the same friends, your mother might worry that you've decided to stagnate, or stop moving forward. When water stagnates, it stops moving and then sometimes begins to smell bad and attract mosquitoes. Think of a marshy pond or an old puddle. Similarly in the figurative sense, when the economy or society stagnates, it doesn't just sit still, it loses momentum. The word carries with it a negative connotation as something that stagnates really should be moving.
Vocabulary lists containing stagnate
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Whether he takes a wrecking ball to it or lets it stagnate, the Kennedy Center threatens to become his latest victim.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
“That means once investors make an allocation it is reasonable to see that it will stagnate for a while causing volatility with lower volumes of shares traded,” he said in emailed comments.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
And in late 2022 and early 2023, many followed the crowd into small stocks as they rebounded strongly, only for them to stagnate while Big Tech powered ahead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
And he predicted that effect to dissipate in the second quarter, leading eurozone GDP excluding Ireland to stagnate in the spring.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Without standardized materials and methods, they worried that the field of tissue culture would stagnate.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
One challenge for China is the huge amount of debt carried by loss-making companies, much of which can’t easily be repaid as overall growth stagnates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
Today, they’re deeply frustrated with the results as the gaming industry stagnates and consumers face higher prices on everything from memory to storage drives and graphics cards.
From MarketWatch ● May 23, 2026
The result could be a "stagflationary shock of pretty large magnitude" - where inflation goes up and growth stagnates, Arvind Subramanian, India's former chief economic adviser, told India Today TV channel.
From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2026
Last year's emissions cuts were driven by falls in energy-intensive industries, many of which are struggling as the economy stagnates, and record solar power generation.
From Barron's ● Jan. 7, 2026
If you don't have the man with leisure, society stagnates.
From Adaptation by John Schoenherr
While inflation rates have been increasing this year, the rates on many high-yield savings accounts have largely stagnated.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
The city’s vouchers for the Community Cat Program have stagnated compared with vouchers for individuals with pets, Naitaki said, leading to explosive kitten seasons like this year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Ireland’s economy returned to growth in the three months through June, boosting hopes for a pickup across the eurozone as a whole, where activity stagnated in the first quarter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
The property crisis drags on and home prices have stagnated, dissuading would-be buyers.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
As far as he knew, the American program for the Super, the thermonuclear bomb, had stagnated.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
The market for asset-backed commercial paper teetered on the brink of collapse during the financial crisis before stagnating for a decade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Still, a large share of Americans have experienced stagnating real incomes since the pandemic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
However, since early July oil prices have been "creeping upwards until the middle of the month then stagnating".
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Currently, stocks of hyperscalers at the front end of the AI boom are stagnating with falls in free cash flow, while chips, infrastructure providers and optical networking gain.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
“I just feel like I’m stagnating, and it’s pretty obvious Sam isn’t interested in my development.”
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
