deteriorate
pronunciation
How to pronounce deteriorate in British English:
UK [dɪˈtɪəriəreɪt]
How to pronounce deteriorate in American English:
US [dɪˈtɪriəreɪt]
-
- Verb:
- become worse or disintegrate
- grow worse
Word Origin
- deteriorate
- deteriorate: [16] The meaning of deteriorate resides etymologically in its first syllable, which represents the Latin preposition dē ‘down’. To this was added the adjectival suffix -ter, to produce *dēter ‘bad’, and this in turn was modified with the comparative suffix -ior to dēterior ‘worse’. Dēterior formed the basis of the verb dēteriorāre ‘get worse’, source of English deteriorate.
- deteriorate (v.)
- 1640s (as a past participle adjective, 1570s), from Late Latin deterioratus, past participle of deteriorare "get worse, make worse," from Latin deterior "worse, lower, inferior, meaner," contrastive of *deter "bad, lower," from PIE *de-tero-, from demonstrative stem *de- (see de). Originally transitive in English; intransitive sense is from 1758. Related: Deteriorated; deteriorating.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Deliverable quality or service quality starts to deteriorate .
- 2. Local politicians had resisted the move , nervous that care might deteriorate .
- 3. America-pakistan relations may yet deteriorate further .
- 4. So reliability is likely to deteriorate further .
- 5. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate .