faint
Americanadjective
-
fainter,
comparative
-
faintest
superlative
-
lacking brightness, vividness, clearness, loudness, strength, etc..
a faint light;
a faint color;
a faint sound.
- Synonyms:
- dull, dim, ill-defined, indistinct
-
feeble or slight.
faint resistance;
faint praise;
a faint resemblance.
- Synonyms:
- weak, irresolute
-
feeling weak, dizzy, or exhausted; about to lose consciousness.
faint with hunger.
- Synonyms:
- languid
-
lacking courage; cowardly; timorous.
Faint heart never won fair maid.
- Synonyms:
- dastardly, timid, fearful, pusillanimous
-
Law. unfounded.
a faint action.
verb (used without object)
-
faints,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fainted,
past participle, past
-
fainting
present participle
-
to lose consciousness temporarily.
-
to lose brightness.
-
Archaic. to grow weak; lose spirit or courage.
noun
-
faints
plural
adjective
-
lacking clarity, brightness, volume, etc
a faint noise
-
lacking conviction or force; weak
faint praise
-
feeling dizzy or weak as if about to lose consciousness
-
without boldness or courage; timid (esp in the combination faint-hearted )
-
no idea whatsoever
I haven't the faintest
verb
-
to lose consciousness, esp momentarily, as through weakness
-
archaic to fail or become weak, esp in hope or courage
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
fainternoun
-
faintishnessnoun
-
faintnessnoun
-
overfaintnessnoun
-
faintishadjective
-
overfaintadjective
-
unfaintingadjective
-
faintinglyadverb
-
faintlyadverb
-
overfaintlyadverb
-
unfaintlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
faintsimple
-
faintssimple
-
have faintedperfect
-
has faintedperfect
-
am faintingprogressive
-
are faintingprogressive
-
is faintingprogressive
-
have been faintingperfect progressive
-
has been faintingperfect progressive
Past
-
faintedsimple
-
had faintedperfect
-
was faintingprogressive
-
were faintingprogressive
-
had been faintingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of faint
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-French, Old French: literally, “feigned,” past participle of faindre, feindre “to feign”; see feign
Explanation
Something faint has no courage or vigor. If you suddenly round the corner and see a gang of bullies staring straight at you, chances are you'll feel faint. Faint comes from the French feindre, for being cowardly or shirking duties. We usually use it to mean without great strength. If you faint, you pass out, from low blood supply to your brain. If you feel faint, you feel weak. Faint also means dim or vague. If you're staring out to sea, you might see the faint outline of an approaching ship. If you really can't remember the answer to something, say you "haven't the faintest idea."
Vocabulary lists containing faint
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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:
It’s hard to read the late secretary’s words as anything but damning with faint praise.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
"These measurements are extremely difficult because carbon is a small and lightweight atom. It scatters very few X-rays, so the signal we needed to measure was quite faint."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026
It explains the Cosmic Microwave Background -- the faint radiation left over from the early Universe -- and accurately predicts how galaxies are distributed across vast cosmic distances.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
Over the next 18 months, the gentle gravitational tug of the Earth, Moon and Sun, along with light from the Sun, gave it a faint push.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
The white light from the screen gleamed on James’s face, his lips parted in a faint frown.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Yasser regularly faints when she tries to stand.
From Barron's ● Mar. 22, 2026
When Louise, angling for attention, participates in her church’s Inner Beauty pageant, her talent is holding her breath until she faints.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026
In the pilot, the third-year medical student faints the first time in the exam room and has painfully awkward exchanges with her peers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2025
O’Sullivan determined that Darcie was suffering psychosomatic seizures and faints, very real but not caused by a physical problem.
From Salon ● May 13, 2025
Immediately he can smell it: the perfume is so sweet, so outrageously sweet, that he nearly faints.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
To spot S301 -- which is two billion times fainter than the star Betelgeuse in our sky -- the team of astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in the Chilean desert.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
Light pollution will hide the fainter meteors, leaving only the brightest ones visible.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Most cell phones now use two GPS frequency bands -- one that is older and fainter, and a second that is newer and stronger.
From Barron's ● Mar. 8, 2026
For this project, the researchers aimed to build a platform that could measure Raman signals far fainter than those detected by existing Raman systems.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 23, 2025
She remembered that as she mounted the stairs with John’s heavy weight in her arms, and as she entered the door, she heard music, which became perceptibly fainter as Florence closed the door behind her.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
By the late 1960s, "he wasn't in the faintest a shy person", Kasmin recalled.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
It’s sprinkled with the faintest touch of spice but happily lacks the tired tropes of most romantasy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
Even the faintest irritation, say a restaurant chain tinkering with its logo, can summon thousands to the same digital square.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2025
The camera's very large mirrors will help scientists detect the faintest of light and distortions emitted from these objects and track them as they speed through space.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2025
He hadn’t the faintest idea how a motor worked.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
I learned about chocolatines last year from the Journal’s Joshua Robinson, who fainted from embarrassment when I walked into a Toulouse patisserie and ordered a “chocolatini,” like it was happy hour at an airport Chili’s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
One 32-year-old Berliner, Diane, told AFP she had fainted from the heat once already, despite drinking three litres of water.
From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 2026
When Charlotte Dron gave birth to her second child Luca in 2018, there was so much blood that a nurse fainted and "midwives were shouting at each other".
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
The “Messy” hitmaker told Rolling Stone in a recent interview that she was grateful that she fainted onstage late last year, and framed the scary ordeal as a wake-up call.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2026
I was so scared I nearly fainted at the thought of this total stranger managing to discover our wonderful hiding place.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
For all its immortal ideas and all those outsized news reports of people fainting, “The Exorcist” could’ve faded from memory if so much of what came after didn’t prove to be a cheap imitation.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
As it worsens, however, it can lead to fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath, fainting, heart failure, and in some cases premature death.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 13, 2026
Jurors at Nix's trial heard how she had initially claimed in 1978 that Andrea had taken a bath on her own, and later complained of "itchy legs" before fainting.
From BBC ● May 26, 2026
Pilgrims perform most of the hajj's rites outdoors where more than a million devotees gather in stifling conditions, with many attendees succumbing to heatstroke, fainting spells and even cardiac arrest triggered by the heat.
From Barron's ● May 25, 2026
I’ve forgotten about fainting and about the stacks of plates, and about falling into the creek and also about seeing the Virgin Mary.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions 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.
