fragility
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French fragilité, from Latin fragilitās. Doublet of frailty.
Morphologically fragile + -ity
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fɹəˈd͡ʒɪlɪti/
- Rhymes: -ɪlɪti
Noun
fragility (countable and uncountable, plural fragilities)
- The condition or quality of being fragile; brittleness; frangibility.
- 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
- It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; perhaps to moralise on the oneness or fragility of the planet, or to see humanity for the small and circumscribed thing that it is; […].
-
- Weakness; feebleness.
- (obsolete) Liability to error and sin; frailty.
Derived terms
- white fragility
Translations
condition or quality of being fragile
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weakness
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References
- fragility in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913