noun
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physical or moral weakness
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(often plural) a fault symptomatic of moral weakness
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of frailty
1300–50; Middle English frailte, frelete < Old French frailete < Latin fragilitāt- (stem of fragilitās ). See frail 1, -ity
Explanation
Frailty describes a quality that's shared by a sick kitten, an elderly man, and a shoddily built go cart. They all have a delicate weakness or vulnerability and seem to require some kind of care. The Old French fraileté, or "weakness" is the root of frailty, and it in turn comes from the Latin word for "fragile," fragilis. What's interesting is that "fragility" was used in the 14th century to mean a kind of moral, rather than physical, weakness. Today frailty can be used this way too, to describe a state of having shaky — or fragile — morals.
Vocabulary lists containing frailty
The Kite Runner
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Beowulf: A New Telling
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Twelfth Night
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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.
See Examples For:
Grip strength isn’t useful to see who’s strong, but rather who’s weak and at risk for frailty and other health risks, says Peterson.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
“We’ve found that older adults who report greater physical frailty and poorer sleep” are more prone to scams.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
The judges said: "In a wonderfully quirky campus novel, Kennard combines an absurd experiment with a moving story about human frailty, passion, confusion and identity. There's something for everyone here."
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
Oliver wrote powerful poems about human frailty but spent her days in the woods writing about nature, which she loved as much as she did language.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
She would cough through the playing to remind them of the potential of the moment, and shake her head at the frailty of human flesh.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
“He wants to be the hero of any circumstance, but unfortunately he has these frailties that I know too well.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
It is time to face the fact that Gregg failed to put the death penalty on a sound footing and that nothing can improve on Gregg’s frailties.
From Slate ● Jun. 8, 2026
Evidently, United have not resolved their defensive frailties, but the switch to four at the back from three has not made them worse.
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026
But City's frailties in their revamped defence were exposed again in the 54th minute.
From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025
They understand its difficulties and frailties, its glories and pleasures.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
