weakness

American  

[week-nis] / ˈwik nɪs /

noun

• weaknesses
  plural

1. the state or quality of being weak; lack of strength, firmness, vigor, or the like; feebleness.

   Synonyms:

   fragility

   Antonyms:

   strength

2. an inadequate or defective quality, as in a person's character; slight fault or defect.

   to show great sympathy for human weaknesses.

   Synonyms:

   flaw

3. a self-indulgent liking or special fondness, as for a particular thing.

   I've always had a weakness for the opera.

   Synonyms:

   appetite, hunger, passion, penchant

4. an object of special desire; something very difficult to resist.

   Chocolates were her weakness.

---

weakness British  

/ ˈwiːknɪs /

noun

1. the state or quality of being weak

2. a deficiency or failing, as in a person's character

3. a self-indulgent fondness or liking

   a weakness for chocolates

---

weakness Idioms  

1. see have a weakness for.

---

Synonym Usage

See fault.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonweakness
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• weaknesses
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of weakness

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English waikenes, weikenes. See weak, -ness

---

Explanation

The point where something fails to work properly or to hold up is its weakness. If a building crumbles in a storm, it's probably because of a weakness — a flaw or defect — in its structure. Weakness can indicate a physical weakness, like a chair with one wobbly leg, or flaw in an idea, like a plan for a lemonade stand that doesn't include any cups for serving the lemonade. People can show weakness too, when they are helpless to take action. The origin of weakness can be traced all the way back to its Proto-Indo-European root of weik, "to bend."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

weakness weaknesses

Once the leader of and undisputed standard-bearer for the TV-to-digital shift, the streaming pioneer has had to publicly contend with various moments of weakness throughout this year.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

Yeah, it’s also that our weakness for money, or the power of money, in this culture also causes us somehow to think that if you’re wealthy, you’re also wise rather than just ruthless, right?

From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026

The note cites Vanda data suggesting technology exposure is close to neutral and recent weakness should have reduced that further.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

But weakness had been building for days, with a key semiconductor index now down nearly 12% in six sessions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

She is also beautiful, which means it’s what people see first, and sometimes, the only thing they see, and this is power and weakness both, but mostly weakness, at least so far.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

“I was losing childhood’s innocent credulity,” he writes, “and beginning to realize that adults had weaknesses too.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

In April, Anthropic announced access to an unreleased Claude program for JPMorgan Chase and other clients to shore up security weaknesses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

"But openness also benefits defenders: researchers can inspect the code, identify weaknesses and improve protection."

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

The residents had urged a fire drill to identify possible weaknesses in the emergency response plans for the district.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

Her gift for spotting weaknesses in codes and ciphers made her good at creating strong ones.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• deficiency
• failing
• flaw
• fragility
• frailty
• gap
• instability
• lack
• lapse
• shortcoming
• vulnerability

---