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moribund

UK/ˈmɔːɹɪbʌnd/US/ˈmɔːɹɪbʌnd/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,492 of 15,258leans written

Moribund means close to dying, or having lost all vigour. A moribund industry, moribund institutions, the patient was moribund.

The medical sense is exact and means dying rather than merely very ill. The figurative use is the commoner and is a serious charge about an organisation, since a moribund one has stopped renewing itself.

Definitions of moribund

  1. 1adjectivemoribundClose to dying, or having lost all vigour.C2

    “The once busy port town is now moribund, with empty shops and closed factories.”

moribund is a state.

Where it comes from

Latin moribundus means dying, from mori, to die.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *mer-

  2. Latin

    moribundus — dying

  3. English, today

    moribund

From Latin moribundus (“dying”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

moribund in the wild

  • An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages.

    Endangered language

  • The fourth stage is moribund, followed by the fifth stage extinction.

    Endangered language

  • The Bung language is a moribund language of Cameroon spoken by three people at the village of Boung on the Adamawa Plateau.

    Bung language

  • There are other moribund sign languages in the country such as Ban Khor Sign Language.

    Thai Sign Language

  • The Tiniguan languages are one or two extinct and one moribund language of Colombia that form a small family.

    Tiniguan languages

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.