fragility
Use Fragility in a sentence
əl; adjective
1.
easily broken, shattered, or damaged; delicate; brittle; frail: a fragile ceramic container; a very fragile alliance.
2.
vulnerably delicate, as in appearance: She has a fragile beauty.
3.
lacking in substance or force; flimsy: a fragile excuse.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
|
Link To fragility
00:10
Fragility
is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
| a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison. |
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
Collins
World English Dictionary
fragile (ˈfrædʒaɪl) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —adj | |
| 1. | able to be broken easily |
| 2. | in a weakened physical state |
| 3. | delicate; light: a fragile touch |
| 4. | slight; tenuous: a fragile link with the past |
| [C17: from Latin fragilis, from frangere to break] | |
| 'fragilely | |
| —adv | |
| fragility | |
| —n | |
| fragileness | |
| —n | |
| fragile (ˈfrædʒaɪl) | |
| —adj | |
| 1. | able to be broken easily |
| 2. | in a weakened physical state |
| 3. | delicate; light: a fragile touch |
| 4. | slight; tenuous: a fragile link with the past |
| [C17: from Latin fragilis, from frangere to break] | |
| 'fragilely | |
| —adv | |
| fragility | |
| —n | |
| fragileness | |
| —n | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
fragility
late 14c., "moral weakness," from O.Fr. fragilité, from L. fragilitatem (nom. fragilitas) "brittleness," from fragilis "brittle, easily broken," from root of frangere "to break" (see fraction). Meaning "easily broken" first recorded in English late 15c.
fragile
1510s as "liable to sin;" c.1600 as "liable to break;" from Fr. fragile (14c.), from L. fragilis (see fragility).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary
fragility fra·gil·i·ty (frə-jĭl'ĭ-tē)
n.
The quality or state of being easily broken or destroyed.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
Jargon
Cite This Source
Cite This Source
Example sentences
The exact timing of measures should be sensitive to developments in the economy, particularly the fragility of the recovery.
The result is a tendency to create dangerous credit bubbles and introduce needless fragility into the financial system.
Such examples hint at the fragility of a globalised world.
So technical people, who can't help knowing about the fragility of systems, have had to find some way to live with what they know.
Nearby Words
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
