stagnate means stagnant. It carries an Arena rating of 1717, earned across 46 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, stagnate ranks #361 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #615 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,196 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,497 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
stagnate is pronounced /ˈstæɡneɪt/.
Why “stagnate” is a great word
STAGNATE — [Verb] To cease motion, activity, or progress; to become inactive, dull, or foul from lack of flow or development. From the Latin stāgnātus, past participle of stāgnō ("cover the land as a lake, stagnate"), from stāgnum ("pond, swamp"). First attested in English in the 1660s. Unlike "decline," which charts an active downward trajectory, or "thrive," which signals a vigorous ascent, to stagnate is to be becalmed in a static present. It is the thick green scum forming on a forgotten pond, the oppressive silence of an abandoned factory floor, the calendar pages turning without event—a quiet, aqueous death not from going backward, but from going nowhere at all.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin stāgnātus, past participle of stāgnō (“cover the land as a lake, stagnate”), from stāgnum (“pond, swamp”).
verb
- To cease motion, activity, or progress:; To cease to flow or run.e.g.“If the water stagnates, algae will grow.”
- To cease motion, activity, or progress:; To be or become foul from standing.e.g.“Air stagnates in a closed room.”
- To cease motion, activity, or progress:; To cease to develop, advance, or change; to become idle.e.g.“Ready-witted tenderness […] never stagnates in vain lamentations while there is any room for hope.” — 1826, Walter Scott, Woodstock:
- To stop the flowing or running of
- To stop the development, advancement, or change of; to make idle.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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