noun
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the state or quality of being infirm
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physical weakness or debility; frailty
-
a moral flaw or failing
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of infirmity
1325–75; Middle English infirmite < Latin infirmitās. See infirm, -ity
Explanation
A weakness or disability, especially due to old age, is called an infirmity. The noun infirmity, when used alone, is generally understood to mean physical frailty. If you want to imply mental weakness or some other disability, then use an adjective for clarity, as in this example: "His mental infirmity was caused by an early onset of Alzheimer's disease." Don't confuse infirmity with infirmary. The latter is a place where the sick and infirm go to recover: "Because of her infirmity, she often ended up being seen by doctors at the infirmary."
Vocabulary lists containing infirmity
The Tragedy of Macbeth
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Julius Caesar
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"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, Act I
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And on the whole, Americans don’t do that, believing that age and infirmity only matter if they impede on a person’s ability to do their job.
From Salon ● Nov. 19, 2025
Boxer, who turns 85 next month, offered no counsel to Pelosi, though she pushed back against the notion that age necessarily equates with infirmity, or political obsolescence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2025
To Thomas, these schemes would present no constitutional infirmity, and courts could do nothing to stop them.
From Slate ● May 23, 2024
The bandage drapes the left hamstring, whose infirmity might have made Djokovic’s three-set win over Grigor Dimitrov in Saturday’s third round sort of a surprise.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 21, 2023
The women, who had been nursing these men in their infirmity, wondered how they’d suddenly improved while others lingered in the sickness.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
There is also a risk of exposing the infirmities of age to an often unsympathetic public, thanks to concert videos that circulate on social media.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
When he studied the brochures of eight CCRCs across the country, the infirmities and dependencies of old age seemed buried.
From MarketWatch ● May 8, 2026
There are so many infirmities in this reasoning that it’s hard to know where to start.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2025
A standout in the seventh episode chronicles the tumbling cascade of infirmities that come with old age that start with aches that never go away.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2024
She conjured diseases and spoke to them, and each of the diseases and infirmities that can hurt or wound a person agreed that it too would never touch Balder.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
