How to Use stagnant in a Sentence

stagnant

adjective
  • The house feels like it was made to hold stagnant air.
    — Karly Hartzman, Vulture, 8 Oct. 2025
  • Across each of these domains, progress has been slow or stagnant.
    — Michael W. Kraus, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 2025
  • For more than two decades , the case remained stagnant.
    — Daniella Segura, Sacbee.com, 7 Nov. 2025
  • It is left stagnant, sometimes for weeks.
    — New York Times, 31 May 2026
  • Frogs lay eggs in stagnant water.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 7 June 2026
  • Weather changes – such as heat waves and droughts – can lead to stagnant air.
    — cleveland, 12 May 2022
  • Cyr's case remained stagnant for decades.
    — Kerry Breen, CBS News, 1 May 2026
  • Of course, timeless doesn’t mean stagnant.
    — Pismo Beach Conference, Mercury News, 29 Aug. 2025
  • Not enough movement to get a stagnant offense out of low gear.
    — Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 12 May 2021
  • Their ball movement was stagnant.
    — Aaron Heisen, Daily News, 8 Feb. 2026
  • The offense was stagnant and scored more than 30 points just twice.
    — Joe Eachus, BostonGlobe.com, 31 Aug. 2023
  • Yet consumer adoption has been stagnant over the past few years.
    — Gary Drenik, Forbes.com, 28 May 2026
  • Its stock has been stagnant not only for the past month and year, but for most of the past decade.
    — John Dorfman, Forbes, 17 May 2021
  • Something that’s been stagnant in your daily rhythm may crack open.
    — Dossé-Via Trenou, Refinery29, 30 Sep. 2025
  • But rap dropped 19 percent from last year, and pop stayed stagnant.
    — Ethan Millman, Rolling Stone, 6 Dec. 2024
  • Time to end this weird, stagnant phase of my life and start writing my first novel.
    — Alex Baia, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2022
  • Wires hung from ceilings; puddles stood stagnant on the ground.
    — Emily Witt, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2023
  • Teachers are quitting in droves over stagnant salaries and burnout.
    — Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 27 Mar. 2024
  • The air was stagnant with the lingering, acrid smell of smoke, rot, and death.
    — Carolyn Kormann, The New Yorker, 30 Oct. 2023
  • His offense was stagnant, iso-heavy and too predictable.
    — Zach Harper, New York Times, 12 June 2026
  • The looks, which had been admired stagnant a few hours before, were now filled with life.
    — Ian Malone, Vogue, 30 Jan. 2025
  • The entire top unit has been out of sync and stagnant over the last 20ish games.
    — Shayna Goldman, The Athletic, 7 Jan. 2025
  • Has health care been pretty stagnant until now?
    — Angela Haupt, Time, 17 Aug. 2025
  • Don’t swim in warm, stagnant, or murky freshwater lakes, for starters.
    — Abby Norman, Verywell Health, 8 June 2026
  • Don’t remain stagnant for the sake of others.
    — Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 19 May 2026
  • The starting unit was stagnant and was outscored 17-4 to open the game.
    — Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Feb. 2024
  • For much of the past year, the British economy has been stagnant.
    — Eshe Nelson, New York Times, 4 May 2023
  • Grant was brought here to improve the stagnant return game of the Browns.
    — Lance Reisland, cleveland, 5 Aug. 2022
  • The offense kept going, and I was stopped and stagnant for two weeks.
    — Tara Sullivan, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Mar. 2021
  • The lot was north of downtown, and its office had the stagnant air of a toolshed.
    — Dan Hernandez, Longreads, 28 Feb. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'stagnant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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