Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The condition of growing old, or of decaying by time; decadence.
Wiktionary
- n. biology The state or process of ageing, especially in humans; old age.
- n. cell biology Ceasing to divide by mitosis because of shortening of telomeres or excessive DNA damage.
- n. gerontology Old age; accumulated damage to macromolecules, cells, tissues and organs with the passage of time.
- n. botany Fruit senescence, leading to ripening of fruit.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state of growing old; decay by time.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the property characteristic of old age
- n. the organic process of growing older and showing the effects of increasing age
Etymologies
- From Latin senescere ("to grow old"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The gene is involved in senescence, a process that is thought to ensure that aging cells do not pass on harmful mutations.”
“The change was called senescence, or sanctification.”
“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”
“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.”
“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.”
“One of the cellular processes controlled by the RB family is cellular senescence, which is now known to act as a barrier against cancer.”
“Dr. LADA: I would say more it's - scientifically, it is called a senescence process.”
“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?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘senescence’.
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 505 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 569 more...
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Ballardian
All things descriptive from JG
Ballardoperation mindfuck, pataphysics, wahrheitssensible..., polymorphism, postprandial, covalent, stygian, lucus a non lucendo, kafkaesque, leitmotif, fugacious, ablate and 81 more...
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Words that sound nice
I can't say exactly what makes these words sound so harmonious...the finely balanced distribution of consonants and vowels? the lack of harsh sounds? the regal elegance of Latin roots? anyway...
felicity, luminous, caliper, amatory, valedictorian, sanatorium, nice, chrysalis, luminosity, luminescence, senescence, evanescence and 6 more...
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Sci-tech
cicatrix, senescence, varicose, gestalt, glossolalia, synesthesia, hypolactasia, hemoglobin, ametabolic, eutrophic, eutrophication, cryptid and 35 more...
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Not quite love
prolix, pleonastic, senescence, autochthonous, loup, pronk, onomatopoeia, magisterial, rixatrix, esurient, blowsabella, crapulence and 69 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 491 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3027 more... -
SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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Words I like
There's nothing more to this list, really.
lily, defenestrate, gloaming, aesthetically, melody, translucent, semiotics, wistful, linear, origami, plethora, schadenfreude and 92 more...
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Consider the Lobster
By David Foster Wallace
percussive, discursive, lugubrious, docent, assiduously, berm, wag, bonmot, imbroglio, telegraph, fissile, rube and 220 more...
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Words to Learn
colloquium, resilient, ruminate, missive, sylvan, indefatigable, preclude, prowess, quiescent, caustic, verdant, specter and 119 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1459 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for senescence.

ruzuzu Leonard Hayflick "describes three phases in the life of a cell. At the start of his experiment he named the primary culture "phase one." Phase two is defined as the period when cells are proliferating -- Hayflick called it the time of "luxuriant growth". After months of doubling the cells eventually reach phase three, a phenomenon of senescence -- cell growth diminishes and then stops altogether."
--Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hayflick_limit&oldid=505876870)
Also see Hayflick limit. Aug 16, 2012
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