slump

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /slʌmp/ UK /slʌmp/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a sudden decline or a sagging collapse

Sales went into a slump after the holiday season.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a sudden decline or a... declinedownturnrecession sag collapse plunge

Opposites

boom surge upturn rise

Simplified etymology

Slump, recorded from the late 17th century, originally meant to fall into a bog and probably arose as an imitation of the resulting sound. Its economic sense developed in the late 19th century.

Etymology

Probably of imitative or Scandinavian origin, akin to Norwegian and Danish slumpe ('to fall, chance'), suggesting a sudden heavy fall.

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# slump

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /slʌmp/
**IPA (UK):** /slʌmp/

## Meanings
1. a sudden decline or a sagging collapse

## Examples
- Sales went into a slump after the holiday season.

## Synonyms
- decline
- downturn
- recession
- sag
- collapse
- plunge

## Antonyms
- boom
- surge
- upturn
- rise

## Etymology
Probably of imitative or Scandinavian origin, akin to Norwegian and Danish slumpe ('to fall, chance'), suggesting a sudden heavy fall.

## AI Etymology
Slump is probably of imitative or Scandinavian origin, akin to Norwegian and Danish slumpe ('to fall, chance'), suggesting a sudden heavy fall. Older glosses in the chain include "to fall, chance", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, slump is best read as imitative formation, yielding an English noun and verb shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun and verb, with the sense "a sudden decline or a sagging collapse". The result is an English noun and verb whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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