weakness

nouncommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//ˈwiːk.nɪs//
United Kingdom//ˈwiːk.nəs//
United States//ˈwik.nɪs//
United States//ˈwik.nəs//
Australia//ˈwiːk.nɪs//

The condition of being weak.

noun

1
The condition of being weak.
Near-synonyms: debility, frailty, vulnerability; vincibility
In a small number of horses, muscle weakness may progress to paralysis.
2
An inadequate quality; fault.
His inability to speak in front of an audience was his weakness.
The only weakness in her plan was its reliance on the electricity being up and running.
The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.
Bradford had preyed on Villa's inability to defend set pieces, corners in particular, in their first-leg win and took advantage of the weakness again as Hanson equalised to restore their two-goal aggregate lead.
3
A special fondness or obsessing desire.
She is an athlete who has a weakness for chocolate.

Etymology

From Middle English wayknesse, weykenesse, replacing earlier Middle English wocnesse, wakenes, wacnesse (“weakness”), from Old English wācnes (“weakness”). Equivalent to weak + -ness.

Forms

plural: weaknesses

weakened · Reduced; made less strong.weaker · Said of one proposition with respect to another one: that the…weakly · Frail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak.

weakness · The condition of being weak.

wealth · Riches; a great amount of valuable assets or material…wealthy · Possessing financial wealth; rich.Wealthy · A certain cultivar of American apple from Minnesota.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.