stagnate

verb

stag·​nate ˈstag-ˌnāt 

stagnated; stagnating

intransitive verb

: to become or remain stagnant

a puddle of stagnating water

wages stagnated

Examples of stagnate in a Sentence

a puddle of stagnating water

Recent Examples on the Web

Talks that stagnated over the summer have picked up in the past week, with Tehran sending officials to Qatari mediators who are circulating proposals with Washington. — Oren Liebermann, CNN Money, 4 Nov. 2026

Crypto trading could also stagnate further following a roughly $6 billion hack on digital assets exchange Binance last week — the largest of its kind in crypto history. — Liz Napolitano, CNBC, 2 Nov. 2026

Households, though, have been struggling with higher costs on everything from gas to groceries eating up more of their budgets at the same time that average wages for workers stagnate. — ABC News, 23 Oct. 2026

After laying off 6% of employees and bouncing both its content chief and head of feature films last week, Netflix reported its third straight quarter of slowing revenue growth Tuesday and acknowledged its stagnating viewership. — Rohan Goswami, semafor.com, 21 Oct. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Latin stagnatus, past participle of stagnare, from stagnum body of standing water

First Known Use

1661, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for stagnate

• abate
• airfreight
• await
• baseplate
• berate
• birthdate
• birthrate
• bookplate
• borate
• breastplate
• bromate
• casemate

Kids Definition

stagnate

verb

stag·​nate ˈstag-ˌnāt 

stagnated; stagnating

: to be or become stagnant

stagnation

stag-ˈnā-shən 

noun