weakness
- 01 B1 Intermediate
the state of not being strong, either in your body or your character.
the state or condition of lacking physical strength, mental resolve, or moral power.
Simple“After the long illness, he felt a great deal of weakness in his legs.”
In context“The regime's inherent weakness became apparent when it failed to respond effectively to the initial wave of peaceful protests.”
Usageuncountable in this general sense
Antonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
a specific part of someone's character or a thing that is not good enough.
a specific flaw, shortcoming, or disadvantage in a person, argument, or object.
Simple“The coach pointed out several weaknesses in the team's defense.”
In context“While the essay was well-researched, its primary weakness lay in the author's failure to address conflicting evidence from recent studies.”
Usagecountable; often used when evaluating performance or plans
- 03 B2 Upper Intermediate
a strong liking for something that you find hard to resist, even if it is not good for you.
a particular fondness or inability to resist something indulgent.
Simple“I have a real weakness for chocolate cake after dinner.”
In context“Despite his disciplined lifestyle, he confessed to having a lifelong weakness for expensive Italian leather shoes.”
Usageusually follows the pattern 'a weakness for [something]'
Usage identify weakness · weakness identify
“I like all of these politicians and their campaign people, see their strengths and weaknesses, and always try to remember they are human.”
“That tension exposed a weakness in the early generations of machine-based search.”
From Middle English wayknesse, weykenesse, replacing earlier Middle English wocnesse, wakenes, wacnesse (“weakness”), from Old English wācnes (“weakness”). Equivalent to weak + -ness.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.