Skip to main content
PlainSpell

stagnation

stag·nat·ion/stæɡˈneɪʃən/noun

stagnation is spelled S-T-A-G-N-A-T-I-O-N: 10 letters and 3 syllables (stag·nat·ion). It appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, stagnation means “The state of lacking flow or motion, usually causing a lack of freshness or health; (countable) an instance of this” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of stagnation is stagnations.

How many letters and syllables are in stagnation?

Letters10: S-T-A-G-N-A-T-I-O-N
Syllables3: stag·nat·ion
In writing1.5 times per million words; the 22,651st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is stagnation?

Stagnation appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce stagnation?

  • UK /stæɡˈneɪʃn̩/
  • US /stæɡˈneɪʃən/
  • Australia /stæɡˈnæɪʃən/

Stagnation has 3 syllables, split stag·nat·ion in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-stagnation.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-stagnation.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with stagnation?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as stagnation from its last stressed vowel (/eɪʃən/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: antagonist.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of stagnation

  • stagnations plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does stagnation mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The state of lacking flow or motion, usually causing a lack of freshness or health; (countable) an instance of this.

    Factors known to encourage the growth of harmful bacteria inside cooling systems include the stagnation of the water.

  2. 2

    The state of lacking activity, change or progress, or excitement in an unhealthy manner; inactivity, staleness; (countable) an instance of this.

    The general concern about industrial stagnation inspired an overhaul of the patent system.

  3. 3

    The state of low or no growth in an economy; (countable) an instance of this.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Stagnation in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcroupissure (state of lacking flow or motion, usually…), stagnation (state of lacking activity, change or progress…), stagnation économique, marasme (state of low or no growth in an economy; an…)
Portugueseestagnação (state of lacking flow or motion, usually…), marasmo, mesmice, paralisia (state of lacking activity, change or progress…), estagnação econômica (state of low or no growth in an economy; an…)
Spanishestancamiento, empantanamiento (state of lacking flow or motion, usually…)
GermanStagnation, Stagnierung (state of lacking activity, change or progress…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does stagnation come from?

From stagnate + -ation (suffix denoting an action or process, or its result), Stagnate is derived from stagnāt-, the participial stem of Latin stagnāre, the present active infinitive of stāgnō (“of waters: to cover the land as a lake, to become a pool, to stagnate”), from stāgnum (“body of standing water (lake, swamp, etc.)”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂g- (“to drip; to seep”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after stagnation