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Glite Dictionary
🌇 Evening sun disappears 🛑 To end officially 📉 In decline ⏳ Ends automatically
sunset

sunset

7.5
An industry or product that is declining and likely to disappear
  • adjective
  • /ˈsʌnˌsɛt/
translation icon : en declive
  • The decline of the printing press shows that it is a sunset technology, rapidly being replaced by digital media.

Examples

  • Experts predict that coal mining will soon be a sunset industry as renewable energy takes over.

  • Many believe that traditional retail stores are becoming a sunset industry due to the rise of e-commerce.

  • We will also keep these measures under constant review, including a four week sunset clause for interventions in very high areas.

  • It was nearly sunset, and everything was very calm.

    Fiction book (1990)

Synonyms

obsolescent
vssunset
1 8.4

Gradually becoming out of date and not used much

is already declining and likely to disappear soon

Antonyms

growth
∞ 1.6

An increase in size, number, or importance of something

expansion
241 3.3

An increase in size, amount, or range

Idioms

into the sunset
  • Literature
12 6.0

To move toward a happy, peaceful future, often at the end of a story

to ride off into the sunset
  • Informal
3 6.5

Leave a situation happily to begin a new life

to drive off into the sunset
  • Informal
1 6.5

Leave a place happily at the end of a story or event

Compounds

beautiful sunset
5 1.0

A bright, colorful view of the sun going below the horizon

How Viable

booming
1 3.4
growing
1 1.7
mature
64 3.4
sunset
7.5
dying
1 2.4
obsolete
93 5.8

Surface Forms

sunset positive

Morphology

sunset = sunset (semi-transparent) = sun + set

The literal noun 'sunset' is transparently formed from 'sun' + 'set'.

Etymology

Sunset used for an industry comes from the picture of the sun 'going down', meaning 'decline' or end, so a 'sunset' industry is one that is no longer growing and may disappear.