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to remain stagnant

to remain stagnant

1 5.8
To stay the same without improving
  • phrasal verb
  • /rɪˈmeɪn ˈstæɡnənt/
translation icon : permanecer estancado
  • The job market has remained stagnant, with no new opportunities for months.

but for quite a while. It could be that this person remains stagnant

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Examples

  • Until someone addresses that issue, our economy is going to remain stagnant.

    Blog text (14)
  • And while the minimum wage has remained stagnant, the prices of everything from rent to healthcare have gone way up.

  • The social organization remains stagnant.

    Blog text (9)
  • I think the division of the United States into two or more countries is a real possibility if the economy remains stagnant.

    Blog text (31)
  • Faculty pay has remained stagnant or experienced bare minimum increases over the past 30 years.

    Blog text (12)
  • The bottom 80% have seen their wages remain stagnant or decline in the last 40 years.

    Blog text (8)
  • The concentrating solar thermal power market has remained stagnant since the early 1990s.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Romney's advisers expect it to remain stagnant at 26%, or perhaps even decline.

    Blog text (23)
  • Even as the U.S. drug control budget expanded by more than 50 percent in recent years, expenditures for demand-side policies remained stagnant, growing less than one percent per year over the past decade.

    Blog text (11)
  • Young people's failure to excel, or to even reach proficiency in reading and writing in K-12, is reflected in the school literacy rates that continue to fall or, at best, remain stagnant decade after decade.

    Academic text (2012)

Synonyms

to stagnate
vsto remain stagnant
19 6.8

To stop growing or changing and stay the same, like water in a pond

has the same meaning but is a single verb form
to lie dormant
vsto remain stagnant
12 6.7

To be inactive but able to become active again

focuses on continuous lack of growth without implying later reactivation
to plateau
vsto remain stagnant
1 5.1

To stop increasing and stay at the same level for a while

describes general lack of growth rather than stopping after prior rise

Antonyms

1.0

Become larger or more physically mature

2.5

Forward change toward a goal or better state

How Dynamic

to boom
97 3.4
to expand
805 2.5
to grow
1.0
to stabilize
  • US
75 4.3
to remain stagnant
1 5.8

Surface Forms

remain stagnant infinitive
remained stagnant past participle
remaining stagnant present participle
remains stagnant third person singular

Morphology

remain + stagnant

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'remain' (to stay) + 'stagnant' (not progressing or inactive); together they literally express staying in an unchanging/inactive state. This is a regular, transparent combination found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Remain stagnant comes from the image of water that remains still in a pool or pond and becomes stagnant. So when something remains stagnant today, it 'stays the same' and shows no growth or change.