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defunct

adjective · verb · noun

Simple meaning

No longer in business or service, nor expected to be again.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dihfuhngkt

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɪˈfʌŋkt

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. business

    No longer in business or service, nor expected to be again; out of business.

  2. linguisticsof a language

    No longer spoken.

  3. No longer in use or active, nor expected to be again.

verb

  1. To make defunct.

noun

  1. The dead person (referred to).

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: No longer in business or service, nor expected to be again; out of business.

Used this way, defunct is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Business/professional

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Longer

defunct companydefunct corporation

Other combinations

now defunctdefunct economistdefunct leaguenearly defunctvirtually defunctdefunct east

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.