as in neglect
lack of use
despite the long years of desuetude, the old manual typewriter seemed to work just fine
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of desuetude
Instead of working alone, Mahama shares his process through these organizations, offering Ghana’s people the chance to rebuild after a period of desuetude.
—
Edna Bonhomme, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2025
New England travel writer and physician Jonathan Brown visited Sans-Souci in the 1830s, long after the king’s suicide in 1820, when the palace had been completely pillaged and had fallen into utter desuetude.
—Marlene Daut, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 Oct. 2021
Some passengers, however, seem to have moved beyond our technological limitations to a conceptual world where human drivers have fallen into desuetude.
—Peter Jakubowicz, Wired, 4 Sep. 2021
This Customs guidance has gone entirely unenforced for decades, but it was reissued — perhaps to keep it from desuetude — by the Obama administration in its final years.
—Eugene Kontorovich, Washington Post, 17 July 2017
Glenn Close returns to the role of Norma Desmond in the 1993 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, based on Billy Wilder’s classic portrait of Hollywood desuetude.
—The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for desuetude
Noun
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The sites of protest include small cities such as Abadan and the Kurdish-majority Malekshahi in the southwestern Ilam province, where economic grievances, unemployment, and state neglect are stark.—
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For neighborhood residents, the properties have become symbols of disinvestment and neglect, drawing growing calls for city government to intervene.—
Noun
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And does a particular level of disuse have to be reached for a word to be dropped into the lexical dustbin?—
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The term fell largely into disuse with the Axis powers’ defeat in 1945.—
Noun
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This has led to extremely long hold times and a 95% call abandonment rate, according to the lawsuit.—
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In October 2022, county supervisors from Story and Shelby counties enacted local ordinances that established setback, permitting, emergency management and abandonment standards for hazardous materials pipelines within the counties.—
Cite this Entry
“Desuetude.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desuetude. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
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