Synonyms for infirmity
Most common
Synonyms by meaning
Noun
1. Frailty — feebleness, frailty or ailment, especially due to old age
frailty, feebleness, debility, decrepitude, weakness, deficiency, imperfection, defect, failing, fault, frailness, foible, valetudinarianism, shortcoming
2. Malady
Other
Definitions
- n. 1
Feebleness, frailty or ailment, especially due to old age.
Despite her infirmity, she remained mentally sharp.
- n. 2
A moral weakness or defect.
Forms
- Plural
- infirmities → frailties, feeblenesses, debilities, decrepitudes…
Choose the right word
Infirmity denotes a chronic or lingering weakness or disability, as blindness or lameness.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- disability Fadil used Layla's disability to make her suffer.
- deformity He was born with a deformity in his right hand.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| infirmity | steady | |
| frailty | rising | |
| debility | steady | |
| decrepitude | rising | |
| feebleness | steady | |
| disability | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 5 letters
- fault1
- 6 letters
- defect2, malady3, foible2
- 7 letters
- disease2, failing2, frailty2
- 8 letters
- weakness2, sickness2, debility4, caducity
- 9 letters
- deformity4, frailness
- 10 letters
- disability5, deficiency4, feebleness, invalidism
- 11 letters
- shortcoming3, decrepitude, unsoundness
- 12 letters
- imperfection4
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (defect2 = 2 syllables).