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Definitions

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The condition of growing old, or of decaying by time; decadence.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The state or process of ageing, especially in humans; old age
  2. n. Ceasing to divide by mitosis because of shortening of telomeres or excessive DNA damage
  3. n. old age; accumulated damage to macromolecules, cells, tissues and organs with the passage of time
  4. n. Fruit senescence, leading to ripening of fruit.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The state of growing old; decay by time.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the property characteristic of old age
  2. n. the organic process of growing older and showing the effects of increasing age

Examples

  • “The gene is involved in senescence, a process that is thought to ensure that aging cells do not pass on harmful mutations.”

    Canadian Fashion History

  • “The change was called senescence, or sanctification.”

    Simon & Schuster: DEEP DOMAIN

  • “A team of international researchers, working for the US Department of Agriculture and led by Dr Cai-Zhong Jiang, a plant physiologist at the University of California-Davis, has been experimenting with methods to forestall the natural ageing process in plants - called "senescence" - and have found that TDZ, when added to water in concentrations of five-10 parts per million, can achieve”

    Life and style | guardian.co.uk

  • “That process is called senescence—when the cells stop dividing permanently, or they undergo apoptosis the cell death we described earlier in the book, in which they’re broken up and reabsorbed.”

    Simon & Schuster: You Staying Young

  • “Most young, healthy cells divide continuously in order to keep body tissues and organs functioning properly, but eventually stop splitting—a state called senescence—and are replaced by others.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Cell Study Finds a Way to Slow Ravages of Age

  • “Although we all have a terminal disease called senescence, he's been living with a different sort of knowledge of how he might die than the rest of us have.”

    The Speculist: Hedging Our Bets

  • “One of the cellular processes controlled by the RB family is cellular senescence, which is now known to act as a barrier against cancer.”

    Science Blog

  • “Dr. LADA: I would say more it's - scientifically, it is called a senescence process.”

    NPR Topics: News

  • “My dream is to use a product whose name sounds a lot like the word "senescence" but isn't!”

    The Washington Post: Sharron Angle + cosmetics: You can't make this up!

  • “In fact, terms such as "senescence", "debility" and "old age" are already in the ICD catalogue, and physicians sometimes enter them on death certificates.”

    The Washington Post: Is it time to bring back 'old age' as a cause of death?

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  • quotato Young pop stars never die---they just fake away Jun 30, 2008

  • seanahan Third Wordie reference to this New York Times Magazine article today.

    "If she were 10 or 15 years younger — Lynne is 39 — she might be Carrie Underwood or Kellie Pickler, blowing away the “American Idol�? panel with her earthy, passionate voice and booking a ride to the top of the charts. While 39 doesn’t necessarily mean senescence in pop music the way it once might have — Bruce Springsteen picked up his most recent No. 1 album at age 58; that’s eight years older than Frank Sinatra was when he recorded “Strangers in the Night�? — it is a little long in the tooth to be looking for your first big hit."

    The author might deserve some kind of vocabulary award. Jan 14, 2008

‘senescence’ has been looked up 1952 times, loved by 7 people, added to 63 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.