Frailty

//ˈfɹeɪlti// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The condition quality of being frail, physically, mentally, or morally; weakness of resolution; liability to be deceived. uncountable

    "the limitations and restraints of civil government, and a legal constitution, may be defended, either from reason, which reflecting on the great frailty and corruption of human nature, teaches, that no man can safely be trusted with unlimited authority ;"

  2. 2
    moral weakness wordnet
  3. 3
    A fault proceeding from weakness; foible; sin of infirmity. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    the state of being weak in health or body (especially from old age) wordnet

Example

More examples

"What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly — that is the first law of nature."

Etymology

From Middle English frelete, frailte, from Old French fraileté, from Latin fragilitās. By surface analysis, frail + -ty. Doublet of fragility.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.