Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use stagnant in a sentence

16 example sentences · adjective

Stagnant means lacking flow or motion, and thus usually not fresh or healthy; decaying through stillness. Example: “Their love had turned stagnant.”

Examples of stagnant by meaning

adjectiveLacking flow or motion, and thus usually not fresh or healthy; decaying through stillness.

  • a stagnant pool stagnant water

adjectiveWithout activity, change or progress, or excitement in an unhealthy manner; inactive, stale.

  • a stagnant economy stagnant prices
  • Their love had turned stagnant.

More sentences with stagnant

  • Low cardiac output due to heart failure can lead to stagnant hypoxia.From the entry stagnant hypoxia
  • Betta splendens comes from further India, where it inhabits stagnant, overgrown waters.1975, The Aquarist and Pondkeeper. From the entry finnage
  • Stagflation is a period of stagnant economic growth accompanied by persistently high inflation and a sharp rise in unemployment.2023 December 11, Anna-Louise Jackson, “Is the U.S. Economy Heading For Stagflation?”, in Benjamin Curry, editor, Forbes, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry stagflation
  • To retrieve the mophead she would have to immerse her hand into the bucket’s stagnant grey water and kitchen-floor debris.2022, Jem Calder, “Serenity Prayer”, in Reward System, London: Faber & Faber, →ISBN, “A Restaurant Somewhere Else” section. From the entry javelin
  • Most likely, they think it also helps compensate for the longer hours, unpaid overtime and stagnant wages that have become standard.2004, George Carlin, “EUPHEMISMS: What Do You Do for a Living?”, in When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books…. From the entry self-esteem
  • I almost gag as we pass a large plastic container stinking of stagnant bin juice and old cigarettes.2000, Ray Banks, The Big Blind, Wildside Press, →ISBN, page 65. From the entry bin juice
  • Everything is absolutely still, air and water are stagnant.1919 March 31, W[ilhelm] N[ero] P[ilate] Barbellion [pseudonym; Bruce Frederick Cummings], “[[1915] May 27.] The Pool: A Retrospect”, in…. From the entry horrificness
  • Glacifluvial sediment may be found in ice-contact environments (supraglacial, englacial, subglacial and ice-marginal) or proglacial environments beyond an apron of stagnant ice.2013, Andrew Goudie, Encyclopedia of Geomorphology, →ISBN, page 462. From the entry glacifluvial
  • Single-family home prices tumbled 18.5 percent in December from the previous year, and real estate agents say that nonforeclosure sales are still stagnant.2009 March 5, Jack Healy, “Federal Reserve Beige Book Paints a Broadly Pessimistic Picture”, in New York Times. From the entry nonforeclosure
  • It hadn't rained for a few days, and the water in the ditch had been stagnant long enough for insect larvae to hatch.2008, Robert Muchamore, “Trek”, in The Sleepwalker (CHERUB; 9), London: Hodder Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 90. From the entry squish
  • The seasons are come to a stagnant stop, the trees blench and wither, the wagons role in the mica ruts with slithering harplike thuds.1934, Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, Grove Press, published 1961, page 284. From the entry blench
  • The Cow Lily is very common in still or stagnant water, often growing so profusely that passage in boats is almost impossible.1910, Chester Albert Reed, Wild Flowers East of the Rockies, page 117. From the entry cow lily
  • In Huozhou city in the northern province of Shanxi, some low-lying houses faced stagnant water breaches, as floods from heavy rain trapped some residents in their buildings, the broadcaster said.2023 August 12, Engen Tham, “Floods, mudslides kill two in northwestern China city”, in Miral Fahmy, editor, Reuters, archived from the…. From the entry Huozhou

Meaning of stagnant

  1. adjective Lacking flow or motion, and thus usually not fresh or healthy; decaying through stillness.
  2. adjective Without activity, change or progress, or excitement in an unhealthy manner; inactive, stale.

Full definition of stagnant

Questions about stagnant in a sentence

How do you use stagnant in a sentence?
Stagnant is used as an adjective. For example: “Their love had turned stagnant.”
What is a short sentence with stagnant?
“Their love had turned stagnant.”
What does stagnant mean?
Stagnant means lacking flow or motion, and thus usually not fresh or healthy; decaying through stillness.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stagnant (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use stagnant in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/stagnant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.