1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

downtimes

noun

plural of downtime
as in winters
a period of often involuntary inactivity or idleness a knee operation that could result in months of downtime for the ski racer

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of downtimes These trends often materialize in batch changeovers, supplier changes, line downtimes and traceability challenges. — Ihor Yurchenko, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026 The average response time for phone calls dropped to 6 minutes from 30 minutes in the prior fiscal year; field office wait times decreased to 23 minutes; and removal of online service downtimes has benefited an additional 125,000 users in a single week, according to the agency's findings. — Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for downtimes
  1. winters
  2. layoffs
  3. breaks
  4. lulls
  5. interruptions
Noun
  • Their first holiday season as a married couple was marked by health challenges and subsequent winters were spent miles apart.
    — Corey Schmidt, Sacbee.com, 15 Sep. 2026
  • The prevailing theory is that Icelandic winters are notoriously variable, which wreaks havoc on the dormant phase of Arctic mosquitoes’ life cycle, killing eggs in unpredictable freezes and thaws.
    — Mark Sappenfield, Christian Science Monitor, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of winters
Noun
  • Channel 4 declined to comment beyond Wednesday’s statement about the layoffs.
    — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 10 Sep. 2026
  • Slightly fewer Americans filed for unemployment claims last week as jobless claims remain at historically low levels and layoffs are still relatively rare.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of layoffs
Noun
  • By the turn of the century, such devices were ubiquitous, joining airbags and antilock breaks as standard safety features.
    — Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Sometimes upsets are fluky, with some pivotal breaks going the underdogs' way.
    — Ian Miller OutKick, FOXNews.com, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of breaks
Noun
  • Dull spells and lulls will crop up, building like waves, peaking, crashing, then dissipating.
    — Carlos Valladares, ARTnews.com, 11 Sep. 2026
  • Share these transparently to maintain trust and momentum through the inevitable lulls.
    — Stewart McLaurin, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of lulls
Noun
  • Mercury opposes hazy Neptune, making expectations unclear and interruptions harder to manage.
    — Tarot.com, Sun Sentinel, 12 Sep. 2026
  • Additionally, customers who experience more than six electric service interruptions of at least five minutes in 12 months will receive an outage credit.
    — Arpan Lobo, Freep.com, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of interruptions

Browse Nearby Words

downtime
downtimes
down-to-earth
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Downtimes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/downtimes. Accessed 17 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of watershed

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

Words from the 'Odyssey'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 18
See More

Popular

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
funny guinea pig in glasses reading a book
Challenging Words You Should Know Vol 2 Words to the wise
See All