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• Achilles heel
  Achilles heel

  noun

  a portion, spot, area, or the like, that is especially or solely vulnerable.
• Achilles' heel
  Achilles' heel

  A point of vulnerability. (See Achilles.)

Achilles heel

American  

Or Achilles' heel

noun

1. a portion, spot, area, or the like, that is especially or solely vulnerable.

   His Achilles heel is his quick temper.

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Achilles heel British  

noun

1. a small but fatal weakness

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Achilles' heel Cultural  

1. A point of vulnerability. (See Achilles.)

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Achilles' heel Idioms  

1. A fatal weakness, a vulnerable area, as in This division, which is rarely profitable, is the company's Achilles' heel. The term alludes to the Greek legend about the heroic warrior Achilles whose mother tried to make him immortal by holding the infant by his heel and dipping him into the River Styx. Eventually he was killed by an arrow shot into his undipped heel. [c. 1800]

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Etymology

Origin of Achilles heel

First recorded in 1800–10

Example Sentences

The achilles heel of labor unions is their lack of strategic thinking.

From New York Times • Feb. 7, 2017

Of course, Rubio also has a big achilles heel: he isn’t a plucky striver who has budgeted carefully and made no mistakes.

From The Guardian • Nov. 12, 2015

Jerry Jones achilles heel was embracing Chris Christie.

From New York Times • Jan. 10, 2015

I think goals have been their achilles heel in the past, in many ways.

From The Guardian • Aug. 15, 2014

But the World Cup is her achilles heel: the £10bn spent on stadiums that will never again host more than about 1,000 spectators; the promised infrastructural improvements that remain unfinished and are already crumbling.

From The Guardian • Jun. 22, 2014