Word.ws English Dictionary

desistence

desistence noun: the act of desisting, especially desisting from criminal activity.

Noun

desistence (plural desistences)

  1. The act of desisting, especially desisting from criminal activity.
    • Near-synonym: cessation
    • But that great offensive of promises, engagement formulas, partial desistences, will not become operative, because it seems that the declarations of good will cannot be taken at 100 % of their value.1951, Boletim geral das colónias - Issues 307-310, page 257
    Synonyms:
    cessation

Examples of desistence in a sentence

  • There is little understanding of the factors that lead to desistence.1992, Forum on Corrections Research - Volumes 4-6:
  • Farrell and Maruna (2004) construed the concept of desistence in terms of its primary and secondary manifestations.2016, Anthony Baxter, From Prisoner to Phd: Reflections on My Pathway to Desistance from Crime and Addiction, →ISBN:

Synonyms of desistence

Forms of desistence

pluraldesistences

Questions about desistence

What does desistence mean?
Desistence means the act of desisting, especially desisting from criminal activity.
How do you use desistence in a sentence?
There is little understanding of the factors that lead to desistence.
What part of speech is desistence?
Desistence is a noun.
What is the plural of desistence?
The plural of desistence is desistences.

Words near desistence in the dictionary

  1. desis
  2. desist
  3. desistance
  4. desistances
  5. desisted
  6. desistence
  7. desistences
  8. desister
  9. desisters
  10. desistest
  11. desisteth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: desistence (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “desistence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/desistence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.