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antiquated

American  
[an-ti-kwey-tid] / ˈæn tɪˌkweɪ tɪd /

adjective

  1. continued from, resembling, or adhering to the past; old-fashioned.

    antiquated attitudes.

  2. no longer used; obsolete or obsolescent.

    The spinning wheel is an antiquated machine.

  3. aged; old.

    antiquated aunts and uncles.


antiquated British  
/ ˈæntɪˌkweɪtɪd /

adjective

  1. outmoded; obsolete

  2. aged; ancient

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Related Words

See ancient 1.

Other Word Forms

  • antiquatedness noun
  • unantiquated adjective

Etymology

Origin of antiquated

First recorded in 1615–25; antiquate + -ed 2

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.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing antiquated

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