Dictionary

senescent en · ADJ

Pronunciation

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Etymology

From Latin senescens, present participle of senescere (“to grow old”), from senere (“to be old”), from senex (“old”).

Meanings

1. Growing old; decaying with the lapse of time.
   • The history of philosophic opinion itself in interpreted by Dr. Hall in terms of a similar development, in which immature adolescent systems, staid senescent and blasé philosophies have appeared and appealed to their public in direct relation to the status of the culture-periods in which they found origin and favor. 1905 March, Joseph Jastrow, “The Natural History of Adolescence”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 66:
   • Put all of this together and one can envision a world two generations hence in which the richer parts of Europe and the Pacific Rim are senescent walled cities, instability and authoritarian decay predominate across much of Eurasia, and real dynamism is sustained mostly in the parts of America that are growing and building at the moment[…] 2024 February 3, Ross Douthat, “Only America Can Save the Future”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 24 Feb 2024:
   • And now, as the night was senescent / ⁠And star-dials pointed to morn— / ⁠As the star-dials hinted of morn— / At the end of our path a liquescent / ⁠And nebulous lustre was born 1859, Edgar Allan Poe, “Ulalume”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, volume 2:
2. Characteristic of old age.
3. (of a cell) That ceases to divide.
   • When such lines and forms of organic development prevail, the individual, as the cell of the body, becomes soon senescent, drifting inevitably into age, decay, and death. 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress:

Forms

Deriveds

hypersenescent · nonsenescent · immunosenescent · unsenescent · antisenescent · presenescent · prosenescent

Relateds

senator · senate · senile · senior · senescence · seniority

Translations (6)

de alternd (growing old) · pl starczy (characteristic of old age) · sv åldrande (growing old) · fr sénescent (growing old) · pl starzejący się (growing old) · de Alters- (characteristic of old age)