antiquated
Americanadjective
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continued from, resembling, or adhering to the past; old-fashioned.
antiquated attitudes.
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no longer used; obsolete or obsolescent.
The spinning wheel is an antiquated machine.
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aged; old.
antiquated aunts and uncles.
adjective
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outmoded; obsolete
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aged; ancient
Related Words
See ancient 1.
Other Word Forms
- antiquatedness noun
- unantiquated adjective
Etymology
Origin of antiquated
Explanation
Something is antiquated when it is so old that it is no longer useful. If your parents believe that you shouldn't use the Internet when you write papers for school, you might call their ideas antiquated. Something is antiquated when it is so old, it's like an antique or recognizable from another era and has the negative feel of being thoroughly outmoded. Things like typewriters, sealing wax for letters, and ideas of proper etiquette all seem antiquated in modern society. Currently, things get antiquated ever faster — 5-inch floppy disks for computers and dial-up modems were very modern fifteen years ago, but now they're antiquated.
Vocabulary lists containing antiquated
Good Riddance
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Ancient Wisdom: Synonyms for "Old"
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This Week in Words: July 28 - August 3, 2018
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In a series of posts on social media, Colombian President Gustavo Petro appeared to blame antiquated military hardware for the accident.
From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026
FCC Chair Brendan Carr has said the existing rules are antiquated and anticompetitive and should be changed.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 9, 2026
Ouali criticized the regulations as antiquated and intended to benefit traditional media.
From Barron's • Jan. 8, 2026
Either way, the hodgepodge of conferences we have today is antiquated, a relic of a broken cable TV model.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025
Mainly Academy stuff, in other words, along with what to do during a red dot emergency and the ways in which officers were made vulnerable by the antiquated configurations of Sing Sing’s exercise yards.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.