degrowth means A negative growth (i.e. a reduction) of an economy or a population. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “degrowth” is a great word
DEGROWTH — [Noun] A political and economic paradigm advocating for the planned, equitable reduction of a society's material and energy throughput to achieve ecological sustainability and human flourishing. From the English prefix de- (indicating reversal or removal) + growth, a calque of the French décroissance. Unlike "recession," an unplanned and socially corrosive economic contraction, or "sustainable development," which seeks to reconcile endless growth with planetary limits, degrowth is a deliberate, normative downscaling that explicitly rejects growth as a primary goal. It is the quiet repurposing of a factory into a community workshop, the liberation of time once spent in compulsory consumption, and the deliberate re-wilding of a monoculture farm—a conscious turning toward sufficiency, proposing not scarcity but a different, deeper kind of abundance.
noun
- A negative growth (i.e. a reduction) of an economy or a population.
- A political, economic, and social movement based on ecological economics and anticonsumerist and anticapitalist ideas.