brittle
adjective · noun · verb
Simple meaning
Inflexible; liable to break, snap, or shatter easily under stress, pressure.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
brituhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɹɪtəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Inflexible; liable to break, snap, or shatter easily under stress, pressure, or impact; crackly.
Not physically tough or tenacious; apt to break or crumble when bending.
Emotionally fragile, easily offended.
informalproscribedof diabetes
Characterized by dramatic swings in blood sugar level.
noun
Caramelized sugar cooled in thin sheets
A confection of caramelized sugar and nuts.
by extension
Anything resembling this confection, such as flapjack, a cereal bar, etc.
verb
intransitive
To become brittle.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Inflexible; liable to break, snap, or shatter easily under stress, pressure, or impact; crackly.
Used this way, brittle is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Fragrant rounded shrub of southwestern United States and adjacent Mexico having brittle stems and small crowded blue-green leaves and yellow flowers.
Delicate fern widely distributed in North America and European having thin pinnatifid fronds with brittle stems.
Tropical American fern with broad pinnae.
Tropical American fern with broad pinnae.
An animal resembling a starfish with fragile whiplike arms radiating from a small central disc.
Large willow tree with stiff branches that are easily broken.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: caramelized sugar cooled in thin sheets
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.