as in mustiness
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Recent Examples of staleness
The smart shopper will already note signs of staleness and mold in the old practice of a singer in stiff white tie and tails or gaudy gown, standing, arm propped on piano, of the second banana accompanist.
—
Classical Music Critic, Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan. 2026
Consider this a magical opportunity to escape the staleness of fall.
—Lisa Stardust, Vogue, 29 Dec. 2025
Coach Billy Napier’s team blended play-calling staleness, horrendous clock management, defensive containment issues and overall immaturity.
—Noah White, Miami Herald, 7 Sep. 2025
Classical Music Critic, Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan. 2026
Consider this a magical opportunity to escape the staleness of fall.
—Lisa Stardust, Vogue, 29 Dec. 2025
Coach Billy Napier’s team blended play-calling staleness, horrendous clock management, defensive containment issues and overall immaturity.
—Noah White, Miami Herald, 7 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for staleness
Noun
-
With their high linen content, the sheets exuded no mustiness, only the faint sweet smell of aged paper.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Jan. 2026
-
The film, which screenwriter Rowan Joffé adapted from a 2014 novel of the same name by Lawrence Osborne, seems aware of the orientalist mustiness of this premise without being compelled to subvert it in any meaningful way.—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
30 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
All around the Tivoli quarries, the air is heavy with the stench of sulfur and the constant pounding, clinking and cracking of giant jackhammers blasting ancient rock into pieces.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
19 Feb. 2026
-
Though the stretch is no longer overflowing with sewage, there’s still a foul stench in the air and a constant din of construction work along the path where residents typically ride their bikes, take walks and launch their canoes.—
Rebecca Morin,
USA Today,
18 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Rhythms of bossa nova and Brazilian funk cascade from overhead speakers into the narrow Adams Morgan space.—
Elazar Sontag,
Washington Post,
26 Feb. 2026
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Alberto Carvalho came to Los Angeles with much fanfare in 2022, hailed as a national education leader who could help pull city schools out of a COVID funk and raise student achievement.—
Times staff,
Los Angeles Times,
25 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
On one side, a satanic figure named Randall Flagg who gathers his forces of badness to Las Vegas; on the other, the good guys, led by 108-year-old Mother Abigail in, of all places, Boulder.—
Barbara Ellis,
Denver Post,
15 Jan. 2026
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The show premiered over Thanksgiving weekend, when people were tired and full and bored (and probably also horny), and countered our world’s unceasing badness with its world’s buoyant sweetness.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
12 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
In that respect, Wolfram is a masterful merger of merger of serious social comment and taut, thrilling action, a film where base human cruelty is always somewhere on the horizon, a film that simply reeks of death and decay (there are more flies than Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia).—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
17 Feb. 2026
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The entire episode reeks of everlasting ineptitude.—
Chris Perkins,
Sun Sentinel,
17 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Staleness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/staleness. Accessed 2 Mar. 2026.
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