Discontinued

How to spell discontinued

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce discontinued

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does discontinued mean?

1. adjectiveNo longer produced, stocked, or made available.
2. verbStopped doing, providing, or producing something.

Discontinued in a sentence

• adjective

  The spare part is now discontinued and almost impossible to source.

• verb

  The bank discontinued the loyalty scheme without warning.

• adjective

  Shoppers grabbed the discontinued paint shades at half price.

• verb

  The manufacturer discontinued that engine after a string of faults.

Where does discontinued come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word builds on 'continue', which English took from the Old French 'continuer' in the 1300s, itself from the Latin verb 'continuare' meaning 'to join together without a break' or 'to carry on'. That Latin verb grew from 'continuus' ('uninterrupted, hanging together'), which in turn rests on 'continere', literally 'to hold together', a compound of 'con-' ('together') and 'tenere' ('to hold'). The same 'tenere' root quietly survives in everyday relatives such as 'tenant', 'tenacious' and 'contain'. The negating prefix 'dis-' ('apart, reverse') was attached so that to discontinue is to stop holding something together, that is, to break off or cease it. The familiar adjective 'discontinued', describing a product no longer made, became common in commercial use during the 1800s, and the spelling trap lives in the unstressed 'tin-ued' run of vowels rather than any doubled letter.

How the word is built

• dis- (reverse/undo)
• con- (together)
• tin (hold, from Latin tenere)
• -ue
• -ed (past tense/participle)