overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

frail.

Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/fɹeɪl/
  1. Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish.

  2. Weak; infirm.

  3. In an infirm state leading one to be easily subject to disease or other health problems, especially regarding the elderly.

  4. Mentally fragile.

  5. Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; unchaste.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English frele, fraill, from Old French fraile, from Latin fragilis. Cognate to fraction, fracture, and doublet of fragile.

noun/fɹeɪl/
  1. A girl.

    dated · slang
Where this word comes from

From Middle English frele, fraill, from Old French fraile, from Latin fragilis. Cognate to fraction, fracture, and doublet of fragile.

verb/fɹeɪl/
  1. To play a stringed instrument, usually a banjo, by picking with the back of a fingernail.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English frele, fraill, from Old French fraile, from Latin fragilis. Cognate to fraction, fracture, and doublet of fragile.

noun/fɹeɪl/
  1. A basket made of rushes, used chiefly to hold figs and raisins.

  2. The quantity of fruit or other items contained in a frail.

  3. A rush for weaving baskets.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English frayel, from Old French frael, fraiel, of unknown origin; possibly a dissimilatory variant of flael, flaiel (“flail”).

noun/fɹeɪl/
  1. Synonym of farasola (“old unit of weight”).

noun/fɹeɪl/
  1. Synonym of flail.

    England · dialectal · obsolete
FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

frail has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

frail studiofrail workshello, frail

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.