Word.ws English Dictionary

desuete

US/ˈdɛswɪt/

desuete adjective: disused; out of use.

Adjective

desuete (comparative more desuete, superlative most desuete)

  1. Disused; out of use.
    • Every act that has not been repealed or expired is given, it being apprehended that no statute can ever according to the English law, technically speaking, become desuete or obsolete.1819, The Practical Abridgement of the Laws of Customs and Excise, page 10
    • Since the day of Mr. Brummell and King George, the noble art of self-adornment had fallen partially desuete.1894, Sir Max Beerbohm, The Works of Max Beerbohm, published 2019

Forms of desuete

comparativemore desuete
superlativemost desuete

Origin of desuete

Probably via Italian, from Latin dēsuētus (“unused”), past participle of dēsuēscō (“to disuse”), from dē- + suēscō (“to make use of”).

Questions about desuete

What does desuete mean?
Desuete means disused; out of use.
What part of speech is desuete?
Desuete is an adjective.
How do you pronounce desuete?
Desuete is pronounced /ˈdɛswɪt/ (US).

Words near desuete in the dictionary

  1. desuckered
  2. desuckering
  3. desuckers
  4. desudation
  5. desudations
  6. desuete
  7. desuetude
  8. desuetudes
  9. desuetudinous
  10. desugar
  11. desugared

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: desuete (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: “desuete.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/desuete. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.