Synonyms of desuetude

desuetude

noun

ˈde-swi-ˌtüd 

as in neglect

lack of use

despite the long years of desuetude, the old manual typewriter seemed to work just fine

Synonyms & Similar Words

• neglect
• disuse
• abandonment
• inactivity
• idleness
• desertion
• abeyance
• latency
• dormancy
• quiescence

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• use

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of desuetude

Instead of working alone, Mahama shares his process through these organizations, offering Ghana’s people the chance to rebuild after a period of desuetude. — Edna Bonhomme, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2025

New England travel writer and physician Jonathan Brown visited Sans-Souci in the 1830s, long after the king’s suicide in 1820, when the palace had been completely pillaged and had fallen into utter desuetude. — Marlene Daut, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 Oct. 2021

Some passengers, however, seem to have moved beyond our technological limitations to a conceptual world where human drivers have fallen into desuetude. — Peter Jakubowicz, Wired, 4 Sep. 2021

This Customs guidance has gone entirely unenforced for decades, but it was reissued — perhaps to keep it from desuetude — by the Obama administration in its final years. — Eugene Kontorovich, Washington Post, 17 July 2017

Glenn Close returns to the role of Norma Desmond in the 1993 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, based on Billy Wilder’s classic portrait of Hollywood desuetude. — The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2017

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