kryptonite

kryptonite

English

Etymology

From a fictional radioactive element, kryptonite, that has a detrimental effect on the otherwise invulnerable character Superman. Apparently formed as krypton (“a chemical element, Kr”) +‎ -ite.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɪptənaɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

kryptonite (uncountable)

1. (figuratively) The one weakness of something or someone that is otherwise invulnerable, an Achilles heel.
   • 1991 October 25, Bryan Miller, “Restaurants: John Clancy's”, in New York Times‎:

     The terrific seven-grain bread here is the kryptonite of restaurant reviewers: two mini-loaves and you are incapacitated.

   • 2006 March 25, Jonathan Leggett, “Cult musicians”, in The Guardian:

     So while recording or sampling a Charlie Manson track […] makes for shock rock kudos aplenty, a devotion to Hubbard is kryptonite for credibility.

Translations

weakness

Catalan: kriptonita Chinese: Mandarin: 克星 (zh) Danish: kryptonit Dutch: kryptoniet Esperanto: kriptonito Finnish: kryptoniitti (fi) French: kryptonite (fr) German: Kryptonit (de), Achillesferse (de) f, wunder Punkt m, Schwachstelle (de) f Greek: κρυπτονίτης m (kryptonítis) Italian: kryptonite Japanese: クリプトナイト (kuriputonaito) Marathi: क्रिप्टोनाइट (kripṭonāiṭ) Portuguese: kryptonita Romanian: kriptonită (ro) Russian: криптони́т m (kriptonít) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: криптонит m Roman: kriptonit m Slovak: kryptonit Spanish: kryptonita Swedish: kryptonit (sv)

Further reading

• kryptonite on Wikipedia.Wikipedia