deterioration.

A progressive decline in quality, strength, health, or effectiveness.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• structural deterioration
• rapid deterioration

On the page

Rapid deterioration made the staircase unsafe.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror / gothic. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: atmosphere, description. Commonness: moderately common.