• 2-minute read
• 11th December 2016

Word Choice: Deprecate vs. Depreciate

One letter can be the only difference in spelling between two words with importantly distinct meanings. This makes mistakes far more likely, especially when the terms aren’t part of our everyday speech to begin with, such as ‘deprecate’ and ‘depreciate’.

To make sure your writing is clear and accurate, though, it’s vital to distinguish between these words.

Deprecate (Express Disapproval)

The traditional use of ‘deprecate’ is to mean ‘express disapproval of’ or ‘belittle’, such as in:

Teachers should never deprecate their pupils.

However, this use is fairly old-fashioned. The only time you’re likely to hear it in regular speech is in the phrase ‘self-deprecating’, which refers to being modest about oneself:

She knew that she was being self-deprecating but didn’t want to seem immodest.

A more modern use of ‘deprecation’ comes from computing, where old features in a program or hardware are ‘deprecated’ when a new version is available.

Deprecated features are still compatible with a new version of software, but their use is discouraged. Features that have been removed completely are ‘obsolete’.

Depreciate (Decrease in Value)

‘Depreciate’ means ‘reduce or underestimate in value’, usually financial value. For example, we could use it to describe the way the value of a car falls over time:

Sports cars are poor investments because they depreciate rapidly.

Its opposite is ‘appreciate’, which we can use to talk about something increasing in value.

A more specialised use of ‘depreciate’ refers to how businesses estimate the declining value of fixed assets for tax and accounting purposes.

Deprecate or Depreciate?

‘Deprecate’ and ‘depreciate’ are commonly confused because they’re spelled alike. This becomes more confusing since ‘depreciate’ can mean ‘belittle’, but only in terms of suggesting something has less financial worth than commonly thought.

This financial connection is key, since ‘depreciate’ almost always refers to monetary value. ‘Deprecate’, meanwhile, is general disapproval of something, except when discussing out-of-date features in computing. Remember:

Deprecate = Express disapproval (or ‘discourage use of’ in computing)

Depreciate = Decrease in monetary value