weak
Americanadjective
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weaker,
comparative
-
weakest
superlative
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not strong; liable to yield, break, or collapse under pressure or strain; fragile; frail.
a weak fortress; a weak spot in armor.
- Antonyms:
- strong
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lacking in bodily strength or healthy vigor, as from age or sickness; feeble; infirm.
a weak old man; weak eyes.
-
not having much political strength, governing power, or authority.
a weak nation; a weak ruler.
-
lacking in force, potency, or efficacy; impotent, ineffectual, or inadequate.
weak sunlight; a weak wind.
- Synonyms:
- ineffective
-
lacking in rhetorical or creative force or effectiveness.
a weak reply to the charges; one of the author's weakest novels.
-
lacking in logical or legal force or soundness.
a weak argument.
- Synonyms:
- vague, lame, unsatisfactory, inconclusive, illogical, inadequate, ineffective, unsound
-
deficient in mental power, intelligence, or judgment.
a weak mind.
-
not having much moral strength or firmness, resolution, or force of character.
to prove weak under temptation; weak compliance.
- Synonyms:
- weak-kneed, undecided, irresolute, unstable, vacillating
-
deficient in amount, volume, loudness, intensity, etc.; faint; slight.
a weak current of electricity; a weak pulse.
-
deficient, lacking, or poor in something specified.
a hand weak in trumps; I'm weak in spelling.
-
deficient in the essential or usual properties or ingredients.
weak tea.
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unstressed, as a syllable, vowel, or word.
-
(of Germanic verbs) inflected with suffixes, without inherited change of the root vowel, as English work, worked, or having a preterit ending in a dental, as English bring, brought.
-
(of Germanic nouns and adjectives) inflected with endings originally appropriate to stems terminating in -n, as the adjective alte in German der alte Mann (“the old man”).
-
(of wheat or flour) having a low gluten content or having a poor quality of gluten.
-
Photography. thin; not dense.
-
Commerce. characterized by a decline in prices.
The market was weak in the morning but rallied in the afternoon.
adjective
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lacking in physical or mental strength or force; frail or feeble
-
liable to yield, break, or give way
a weak link in a chain
-
lacking in resolution or firmness of character
-
lacking strength, power, or intensity
a weak voice
-
lacking strength in a particular part
a team weak in defence
-
-
not functioning as well as normal
weak eyes
-
easily upset
a weak stomach
-
-
lacking in conviction, persuasiveness, etc
a weak argument
-
lacking in political or strategic strength
a weak state
-
lacking the usual, full, or desirable strength of flavour
weak tea
-
grammar
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denoting or belonging to a class of verbs, in certain languages including the Germanic languages, whose conjugation relies on inflectional endings rather than internal vowel gradation, as look, looks, looking, looked
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belonging to any part-of-speech class, in any of various languages, whose inflections follow the more regular of two possible patterns Compare strong
-
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(of a syllable) not accented or stressed
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(of a fuel-air mixture) containing a relatively low proportion of fuel Compare rich
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photog having low density or contrast; thin
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(of an industry, market, currency, securities, etc) falling in price or characterized by falling prices
Synonym Usage
Weak, decrepit, feeble, weakly imply a lack of strength or of good health. Weak means not physically strong, because of extreme youth, old age, illness, etc.: weak after an attack of fever. Decrepit means old and broken in health to a marked degree: decrepit and barely able to walk. Feeble denotes much the same as weak, but connotes being pitiable or inferior: feeble and almost senile. Weakly suggests a long-standing sickly condition, a state of chronic bad health: A weakly child may become a strong adult.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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overweaknessnoun
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weakishnessnoun
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overweakadjective
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weakishadjective
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overweaklyadverb
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weakishlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of weak
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English weik, from Old Norse veikr; cognate with Old English wāc, Dutch week, German weich; akin to Old English wīcan “to yield, give way,” Old Norse vīkja “to move, turn, draw back,” German weichen “to yield”
Explanation
Weak is the opposite of strong. Muscles, arguments, defenses, and coffee can all be weak — and when they are, it's not good. Anything weak is lacking in strength or power. If your muscles are weak, you can't lift much. If your will power is weak, you give up easily. Food and drinks with little flavor are weak, and an argument that is flimsy is weak. Whenever anything is lacking or not what it should be, it's weak. And if you come across something really lame — like a dumb TV show — you could say, "That's so weak."
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.
See Examples For:
The weak interaction between the sensor and the qubit is especially important.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026
The weak currency has in recent months inflated resource-poor Japan's import costs, especially for oil as the Iran war strangles supplies from the Middle East.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
Employment data for October is out Friday, and a third-straight weak report could dial back market expectations for rate hikes, analysts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
New job listings had surged to a record 12.3 million in 2022 as the U.S. recovered from the pandemic, but they have been surprisingly weak for the past three years.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026
I am so thirsty & weak I can barely sit up to write this.
From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman
Toyota 7203 16.68%increase; up pointing triangle Motor raised its annual earnings forecast after reporting higher quarterly operating profit thanks to a weaker yen and cost cuts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
Toyota highlighted improving marketing efforts, cost-reductions and the impact of a weaker yen on its profits, even as it grapples with rising materials prices and the cost of the war in the Middle East.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2026
When they adjusted their analysis to consider the children's responses in the dorsal striatum, the relationship between ultra-processed food intake and BMI became 31% weaker.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026
This force is approximately 20 orders of magnitude weaker than electromagnetism.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026
One after another, the seizures leave him weaker and weaker.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Timothée Chalamet, “Dune: Part Three” “Matt Damon’s version of Odysseus was the weakest link in the movie. It’d be marvelous to see John Turturro or John Malkovich sneak up and swipe this statue for themselves.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
"It is a moment the sector's weakest balance sheet gets its strongest tailwind".
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026
The season premiere in September managed 7.94 million, a 21% drop from 2025 and the weakest opening this century.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026
The rupiah dropped about 0.8 percent against the dollar to sit at around around 18,060, having hit 18,209 in June, its weakest level on record.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
But it was a puzzle about feelings, and Jessie knew that feelings were her weakest subject.
From "The Lemonade War" by Jacqueline Davies
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