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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

relapse.

To fall back again; to slide or turn back into a former state or practice.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɹɪˈlæps//ˈɹiːˌlæps/
  1. To fall back again; to slide or turn back into a former state or practice.

    intransitive
    He has improved recently but keeps relapsing into states of utter confusion.
    to relapse into a stupor, into vice, or into barbarism
  2. To recur; to worsen, be aggravated (after a period of improvement).

    intransitive
  3. To return to a vice, especially self-harm or alcoholism, failing to maintain abstinence.

    informal · intransitive · specifically
    relapsed after 5 months of being clean
  4. To slip or slide back physically; to turn back.

Where this word comes from

From Latin relapsus, past participle of relabi (“to slide back, fall back”), from re- (“back”) + labi (“to slip, slide, fall”).

noun/ɹɪˈlæps//ˈɹiːˌlæps/
  1. The act or situation of relapsing.

    a drug relapse
  2. An occasion when a person becomes ill again after a period of improvement

  3. One who has relapsed, or fallen back into error; a backslider.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Latin relapsus, past participle of relabi (“to slide back, fall back”), from re- (“back”) + labi (“to slip, slide, fall”).

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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.