fragile
Americanadjective
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easily broken, shattered, or damaged; delicate; brittle; frail.
a fragile ceramic container; a very fragile alliance.
-
vulnerably delicate, as in appearance.
She has a fragile beauty.
-
lacking in substance or force; flimsy.
a fragile excuse.
adjective
-
able to be broken easily
-
in a weakened physical state
-
delicate; light
a fragile touch
-
slight; tenuous
a fragile link with the past
Synonym Usage
See frail 1.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fragile
First recorded in 1505–15; from Latin fragilis, equivalent to frag- (variant stem of the verb frangere break ) + -ilis -ile
Explanation
If it's delicate and easily broken, like a rare glass vase or the feelings of an overly emotional friend, it's certainly fragile. Back in the 1500s, fragile implied moral weakness. Then around 1600, its definition broadened to mean “liable to break.” It wasn’t until the 19th century that the word started to mean “frail” and was used to describe people. Today we use it to describe things like spider webs, unstable political systems, and insecure egos. Synonyms include flimsy, vulnerable, and brittle.
Vocabulary lists containing fragile
Give Me a Break!: Fract and Frag
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
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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.
Fragile matter is Chakraborty’s specialty, and her expertise is put to novel use in shoring up her son’s tender heart.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 12, 2026
"Fragile is the flesh of defenseless populations, tried by so many wars, ongoing or concluded, leaving behind rubble and open wounds," the pope said at the mass in St Peter's Basilica.
From Barron's • Dec. 25, 2025
People with Down syndrome have an extra copy of chromosome 21, for example, and Fragile X syndrome results when the FMR1 gene isn’t expressed.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 11, 2025
The findings may also have implications for intellectual disabilities, such as Fragile X syndrome.
From Science Daily • Apr. 9, 2024
She remembered what her mother said the day Johnny, husband #3, moved the rest of his guitar collection into the rented U-Haul and drove it away to live with a Hooters waitress named Fragile.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
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.
