stagnation

[stag-ney-shuhn]

noun

1. the state or condition of stagnating, or having stopped, as by ceasing to run or flow.

   Meteorologists forecast ozone and air stagnation.

2. a foulness or staleness, as one emanating from a standing pool of water.

3. a failure to develop, progress, or advance.

   periods of economic stagnation followed by bursts of growth.

4. the state or quality of being or feeling sluggish and dull.

   Happily, they have been able to avoid stagnation in their ten-year marriage.

Word History and Origins

Origin of stagnation¹

stagn(ate) + -ation

Example Sentences

In an even less rosy outcome, the U.S. could see secular stagnation: A return to the norm between the financial crisis and pandemic, with weak investment and a savings glut.

Read more on Barron's

The result was stability indeed—and centuries of stagnation.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

This consistency in the trajectory of rebuilding indicates that permitting stagnation is attributable to the passage of time rather than declining once a certain percentage of homes are rebuilt.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The lyrics are the only giveaway that this is the work of a band in their late middle age - as Cocker, the poet laureate of suburban misfits, sings movingly about stagnation, divorce and mortality.

Read more on BBC

The union says its employer's removal of six days' annual leave from members' contracts, pay stagnation and a widening ethnicity pay gap has made them "particularly angry".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• sluggishness www.thesaurus.com