Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Being in the process of passing out of use or usefulness; becoming obsolete.
- adj. Biology Gradually disappearing; imperfectly or only slightly developed. Used of an organ or other part of an animal or plant.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Becoming obsolete; passing out of use: as, an obsolescent word or custom.
- In entomology, somewhat obsolete; imperfectly visible. Synonyms Ancient, Old, Antique, etc. See
ancient .
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Going out of use; becoming obsolete; passing into desuetude.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. becoming obsolete
Etymologies
- First attested circa 1780, from Latin obsolescentum. (Wiktionary)
- Latin obsolēscēns, obsolēscent-, present participle of obsolēscere, to fall into disuse : ob-, away; see ob- + solēre, to be accustomed to. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We have an incredible problem in obsolescent equipment.”
“I also show how "obsolescent" points of view can be turned and often were turned into instruments for the examination of modern theories and I give examples where such an examination shows them to be superior.”
“But if he had studied the matter a little more closely he would have learned that the humanities are remnants of points of view he himself calls "obsolescent," that they changed since the scientific revolution, that by now most of them have been voided of ontological content (in theology this is called demythologization) and can therefore no longer be used as critics of the scientific enterprise.”
“Vatican to cover up - you guessed it - crimes of clerical sex abuse by resort to "obsolescent" canon law.”
“I just wish that every industry would stay away from anything obsolescent just to make a quick dollar.”
“The only one who win are these technology obsolescent companies.”
Updated: Time Warner Cable Backs Off Metered Broadband Everywhere
“Murdoch seems obsolescent and, like the dictators of North Africa, his troubles come from the abuse of power.”
“Does NATO unity really depend on outmoded weapons and increasingly obsolescent delivery aircraft? ...”
“The result is that the whole can become somewhat obsolescent before it is finished.”
The Huffington Post: Frank A. Weil: Through a Monstrous Looking Glass
“In a modern, plural society, concepts like majority rule and minority veto should really be obsolescent.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘obsolescent’.
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I didn't know there was a word for that!
interdigitate, aspheric, benthos, reptation, pastiche, pandiculate, agelast, obdormition, dysania, armscye, phosphene, etiolation and 62 more...
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My favorites
foible, sidereal, amygdala, woodnote, cogitate, silvern, ollalieberry, ramify, diaphanous, surreality, myopia, subcelestial and 75 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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Necessary?
"Words are very..."
The above was the original description for this list. Unfortunately, it doesn't convey much about the list contents.
I'm leaving you to draw your own conclusions abo...supererogation, fruitcake, unbeknownst, melifluous, bane, cavy, unnecessary, lyrical, question, undertow, weapon, arduous and 200 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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The Collection
A somewhat discriminatory list of words and phrases collected for their euphonic or arcane appeal, interesting etymology, or concise definition of an otherwise unnamed phenomenon or concept.
ziggurat, neophilia, sucker punch, soporific, epoch, tundra, fiat, idiotproof, miscellany, metaphysics, cryptozoology, dysphoria and 850 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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ginnylev's Words
neuroplasticity, repudiate, scintilla, ruminate, tautology, ombudsman, exigent, filibuster, grace, ambidextrous, amends, disclosure and 623 more...
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wolfson's Words
cicisbeo, animadversion, drupe, callipygian, rhadamanthine, poetaster, philosophaster, grammaticaster, lacuna, infralapsarian, incunabula, logorrhea and 142 more...
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Another day, a whole nother list
rump, spot on, flank, outflank, rank, bedeck, leafhopper, apocope, academic, set-to, point of no return, cloy and 210 more...
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They Grow on You
accrescent, acescent, adipescent, alkalescent, contabescent, convalescent, decrescent, deliquescent, equicrescent, excrescent, fervescent, flavescent and 27 more...
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gozozogo's list
concur, whipsaw, befuzzle, obsolescent, indelible, endoplasmic retic..., quixotic, antidisestablishm..., blitzkrieg, putain, salope, s'il vous..., doppelganger and 39 more...
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words to use more often
egregious, torpor, droll, rapacious, repudiate, cacophony, concupiscence, lugubrious, sunder, coxcomb, indelible, bildungsroman and 30 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for obsolescent.
slumry If it is obsolescent, it is becoming obsolete. Jul 16, 2007