Sluggishness

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The property of being sluggish, unable or unwilling to act quickly. uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    inactivity; showing an unusual lack of energy wordnet
  3. 3
    The state of economic decline, inactivity, slow or subnormal growth. uncountable, usually

    "And we see such interdependence even more clearly in their economic performance: China’s annual GDP growth rate, for example, will slow by two percentage points this year, owing to sluggishness in the United States and the EU."

  4. 4
    the pace of things that move relatively slowly wordnet
  5. 5
    a state of comatose torpor (as found in sleeping sickness) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
languorlethargyacediaanemiaapathyataraxy

Example

More examples

"And we see such interdependence even more clearly in their economic performance: China’s annual GDP growth rate, for example, will slow by two percentage points this year, owing to sluggishness in the United States and the EU."

Etymology

From sluggish + -ness.

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