Lethargic
//ləˈθɑɹd͡ʒɪk// adj
adj ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Adjective
- 1 Sluggish, slow.
"[That cat] hasn't caught a mouse since he was a slip of a kitten. Except when eating, he does nothing but sleep. Lethargic is the word that springs to the lips. If you cast an eye on him, you will see that he's asleep now."
- 2 Indifferent, apathetic.
Adjective
- 1 deficient in alertness or activity wordnet
Example
More examples"I feel lethargic when I diet, what should I do?"
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ληθαργικός (lēthargikós), from λήθαργος (lḗthargos, “forgetful, lethargic”), from λήθη (lḗthē, “a forgetting, forgetfulness”) (from which Lethe (“river in Hades”)) + ἀργός (argós, “not working”). By surface analysis, lethargy + -ic.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.