recession.

1. A sustained, broad decline in economic activity.

2. The movement of something back from a previous position.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• economic recession
• prolonged recession

On the page

A prolonged recession reduced demand for new housing.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Singular recession; plural recessions. 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: analysis, evaluation, social science. Commonness: moderately common.