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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

See Examples For:

Achilles heel Achilles' heel

Even China’s imports of crude, previously an Achilles heel given its heavy dependence on energy to fuel its economy, dropped 8.8% as electric vehicles continue to dominate the market for autos domestically.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 14, 2026

“This exposes an Achilles heel to the Burn, and other people potentially trying to get away with something this awful.”

From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2025

“You have spontaneous multiple events, which is the Achilles heel of any operation,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2025

"We discovered an Achilles heel of antibiotic resistant bacteria," said Süel, a member of the Department of Molecular Biology at UC San Diego.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 16, 2024

“You know what an Achilles heel is, Eddie?”

From "The Million Dollar Shot" by Dan Gutman

Japan’s Achilles’ heel in this situation is its dependence on foreign oil and gas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026

"Banerjee's long electoral success rested on a delicate equilibrium between welfare and organisation. But the very organisation that sustained her for 15 years also became her Achilles' heel," says political scientist Bhanu Joshi.

From BBC ● May 4, 2026

Papic accepts that China has a heavy energy import dependency, but points out this is far less of an Achilles’ heel than most make out.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 22, 2026

As he notes, "this same virtue had become their experimental Achilles' heel: how do you "read" or "detect" a property that doesn't reside at any specific point?"

From Science Daily ● Feb. 16, 2026

Armed with 2,400 years' worth of extra mathematics, it is not hard for us to go back and find Zeno’s Achilles’ heel.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife