frail
adjective · verb · noun
Simple meaning
Easily broken physically.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fraylIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɹeɪl
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
Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish.
medicine
In an infirm state leading one to be easily subject to disease or other health problems, especially regarding the elderly.
Physically weak
Weak; infirm.
Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; unchaste.
Mentally fragile.
verb
To play a stringed instrument, usually a banjo, by picking with the back of a fingernail.
noun
The weight of a frail (basket) full of raisins or figs; between 50 and 75 pounds
A basket made of rushes, used chiefly to hold figs and raisins.
A rush for weaving baskets.
The quantity of fruit or other items contained in a frail.
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: Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish.
Used this way, frail is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- 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.
More ways to use frail
- “An invalid's frail body.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- weakadjective
- physicallyadverb
- illadjective
- sickadjective
- disablednoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: easily broken physically
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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.