stagnant

adjective

stag·​nant ˈstag-nənt 

1

a(1)

: not flowing in a current or stream

stagnant water

(2)

: without inflow and outflow

a stagnant pool

b

: stale

long disuse had made the air stagnant and foul

—Bram Stoker

2

: not advancing or developing

a stagnant economy

stagnancy

ˈstag-nən(t)-sē 

noun

stagnantly adverb

Examples of stagnant in a Sentence

… many people who make their living in academia are reasonably well insulated from financial devastation. For most tenured faculty, the worst they are likely to experience is stagnant pay and deferred retirement. —Andrew Delbanco, The New York Review of Books, 14 May 2009

"For adults, entertainment needs to be relevant to their life." Chen points to the stagnant US comic book industry as an example of irrelevance. "I don't want to see video games become like American superhero comics," he admits. "American comics live and die based on a very niche audience. In Japan, comics are a national art form." —Sid Shuman, Gamepro, May 2009

The blue-green algae blooms can occur in both freshwater and saltwater environments, but are most commonly found in stagnant bodies of water enriched by runoff, Paerl said. Public health officials in the southeastern United States are beginning to monitor water supplies for some of the toxins. —Bridget M. Kuehn, Journal of the American Medical Association, 25 May 2005

Recent Examples on the Web

Wages have been stagnant since the 1970s and many traditional working-class jobs have vanished. —Chase Hunter, The Mercury News, 10 Nov. 2024

Since 2020, the share of electricity in final energy consumption has been stagnant between 20-21% globally. —Sumant Sinha, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024

The atmospherics of the island—hot, stagnant, glassy, bright—mirror Craint’s state of mind, his confusion, bewilderment, blindness, apathy. —Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2024

Labor Department data found that a mere 12,000 jobs were created during the month of October, while the unemployment rate remained stagnant at 4.1 percent, lackluster numbers for the Biden administration just days before Election Day. —Caroline Vakil, The Hill, 1 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

see stagnate

First Known Use

1610, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1)

Kids Definition

stagnant

adjective

stag·​nant ˈstag-nənt 

1

: not flowing in a current or stream : motionless

2

: not active or brisk

stagnant business