weakness
[noun]
Synonyms:
- frailty, decrepitude, feebleness, fragility, infirmity, powerlessness, vulnerability
- failing, blemish, defect, deficiency, fault, flaw, imperfection, lack, shortcoming
- liking, fondness, inclination, partiality, passion, penchant, soft spot

---

English Thesaurus: fault, defect, weakness, flaw, bug, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

weak‧ness W3 /ˈwiːknəs, ˈwiːknɪs/ noun
[Word Family: noun: weakling, weakness; verb: weaken; adverb: weakly; adjective: weak]

1. FAULT [countable] a fault in someone’s character or in a system, organization, design etc:
The legislation has a fundamental weakness.
The plan has strengths and weaknesses.

2. LACK OF POWER [uncountable] lack of strength, power, or influence
weakness in
weakness in the economy
weakness of
the growing weakness of local government

3. BODY [uncountable] the state of being physically weak:
muscular weakness
weakness in
weakness in the right arm

4. CHARACTER [uncountable] lack of determination shown in someone’s behaviour:
He couldn’t explain his weakness in giving in to her demands.
I dared not cry or show any sign of weakness.
weakness of
his weakness of character

5. MONEY [uncountable] the condition of not being worth a lot of money
weakness of
the weakness of the pound against the dollar

6. a weakness for something if you have a weakness for something, you like it very much even though it may not be good for you:
I have a real weakness for fashionable clothes.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

weakness
noun
I. lack of strength
ADJ. big, fundamental, great, major, serious, significant | small | physical | structural | personal | muscular | political | apparent, perceived exploiting apparent weaknesses in the system
inherent | human
VERB + WEAKNESS have, suffer from | cause, create | exploit | assess, identify | highlight, point out, reveal | minimize, overcome
WEAKNESS + VERB be, lie The greatest weakness of the scheme lies in its lack of government support.
PREP. ~ in Service conditions soon revealed the inherent weaknesses in the vehicle's design.
PHRASES a moment of weakness In a moment of weakness I let him drive my car.
a sign of weakness He saw compromise as a sign of weakness.
strengths and weaknesses The appraisal system seeks to assess employees' strengths and weaknesses.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

weakness
II. liking for sth/sb
ADJ. real
VERB + WEAKNESS have I've got a real weakness for chocolate.
develop | overcome
PREP. ~ for He worries a lot about his weight, but can't overcome his weakness for fatty foods.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

fault a problem in a machine, system, design etc that causes damage or makes it not work properly:
The fire was caused by an electrical fault.
a fault in the engine
defect a fault in something such as a product or machine, resulting from the way it was made or designed:
Cars are tested for defects before they leave the factory.
weakness a part of a plan, system, or argument that is not as good as the other parts, and makes it likely to fail:
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each method?
flaw a fault in a plan, system, argument etc, especially one that makes it useless or not effective:
Your argument has a fundamental flaw.
There was one major flaw in his suggestion – we didn’t have enough money.
bug a fault in a computer program:
A bug in the system was quickly fixed.
glitch a small fault in the way something works, that can usually be easily corrected:
I noticed a small glitch when installing the software.
mistake something that is wrong in someone’s spelling, grammar, calculations etc:
The article was full of spelling mistakes.
there’s something wrong with something used when saying that there is a problem in a machine, car etc, but you do not know what it is:
There’s something wrong with the computer – it won’t close down.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲