fragility

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Middle French fragilité, from Latin fragilitās. Doublet of frailty.

Morphologically fragile +‎ -ity

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /fɹəˈd͡ʒɪlɪti/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪlɪti

Noun[edit]

fragility (countable and uncountable, plural fragilities)

  1. The condition or quality of being fragile; brittleness; frangibility.
    • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
      It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; perhaps to moralise on the oneness or fragility of the planet, or to see humanity for the small and circumscribed thing that it is; […].
  2. Weakness; feebleness.
  3. (obsolete) Liability to error and sin; frailty.

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