paralysis
Americannoun
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Pathology.
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a loss or impairment of voluntary movement in a body part, caused by injury or disease of the nerves, brain, or spinal cord.
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a disease characterized by this, especially palsy.
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a state of helpless stoppage, inactivity, or inability to act.
The strike caused a paralysis of all shipping.
noun
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pathol
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impairment or loss of voluntary muscle function or of sensation ( sensory paralysis ) in a part or area of the body, usually caused by a lesion or disorder of the muscles or the nerves supplying them
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a disease characterized by such impairment or loss; palsy
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cessation or impairment of activity
paralysis of industry by strikes
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of paralysis
before 1150; < Latin < Greek parálysis, equivalent to paraly-, var stem of paralȳ́ein to loosen (i.e., disable) on one side ( para- para- 1 + lȳ́ein to loosen) + -sis -sis; replacing Middle English paralisi ( e ) < Old French < Latin, as above; replacing late Old English paralisin (accusative) < Latin, as above; cf. palsy 1
Compare meaning
How does paralysis compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Paralysis is the inability to move part of your body. It's actually fairly common for people to have short periods of paralysis while they sleep. Paralysis is the experience of being paralyzed, or unable to move part or all of your body. There are medical conditions that can cause paralysis. You can also use paralysis to describe the inability to act, like the paralysis of a city during a big snowstorm, or the paralysis of the school play's star, suddenly struck with stage fright.
Vocabulary lists containing paralysis
Out of the Dust
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National Nurses Week: Medical Branches and Conditions
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"Siberian Survivors" and "Tigers in the Wild"
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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:
Even Amazon can recognize the importance of a piece of direct mail that makes holiday shopping less likely to cause choice paralysis.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
Symptoms can include fever, rash, facial paralysis, an irregular heartbeat and arthritis, according to the CDC.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
Some batches did not fully inactivate the virus, and in 1955 the vaccine resulted in 10 deaths and 200 vaccine-related cases of polio paralysis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
Later, while the public was somewhat aware that President Franklin D Roosevelt lived with paralysis from polio, the White House downplayed his use of a wheelchair until his death in office in 1945.
From BBC ● May 30, 2026
The paralysis seemed to affect her hands first, traveling from them along her arms and then down into her legs.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
He says there are visible signs that the disease paralyses the sea urchin's spines and tiny feet.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2023
Sometimes these compounds act as deterrents: nicotine, for example, is produced by some plants and paralyses insects, whereas caffeine suppresses their appetite.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 24, 2020
Nothing proved more vividly the maxim that technology renders civilisation fragile than the great traffic paralyses of the late seventies.
From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2019
“No, not scared. I believe in providence: you go when you go. And what’s the point of being scared? It paralyses you. You function better without fear.”
From The Guardian ● Sep. 12, 2017
Syphilis has a strong specialty for producing limited motor paralyses, but a much weaker one for producing limited affections of the sensory system.
From Neuralgia and the Diseases that Resemble it by Anstie, Francis E.
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.
