Defunct: meaning, example and synonyms

Defunctadj. No longer existing, operating, or functioning.

Flashcard for Defunct (adjective): no longer existing, operating, or functioning. Example: The museum's archive holds letters from several defunct railway companies whose lines once connected towns that no longer exist. Synonyms: extinct, obsolete, dead, inoperative. Antonyms: active, operating, functioning, existing. Memory tip: Defunct sounds like "de-functioned": it no longer functions. Illustration: an old rusted steam locomotive overgrown with vines and wildflowers on abandoned tracks.

Example

The museum's archive holds letters from several defunct railway companies whose lines once connected towns that no longer exist.

Part of speech
adjective
Synonyms
extinct, obsolete, dead, inoperative
Antonyms
active, operating, functioning, existing
Memory tip
Defunct sounds like "de-functioned": it no longer functions.

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Check yourself: Defunct in context

Pick the word that best completes each text, as on the SAT's words-in-context questions.

Question 1

The map still showed a ferry crossing that had been ______ for twenty years, its dock long since collapsed into the river.

Question 2

Many of the newspapers that covered the 1900 election are now ______, surviving only on microfilm in university libraries.

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