weak.
Lacking in force (usually strength) or ability.
Meaning & usage
Lacking in force (usually strength) or ability.
The child was too weak to move the boulder.
They easily guessed his weak computer password.
Unable to sustain a great weight, pressure, or strain.
a weak timber; a weak rope
Limp, soft.
Unable to withstand temptation, urgency, persuasion, etc.; easily impressed, moved, or overcome; accessible; vulnerable.
weak resolutions; weak virtue
Having a strong, irrepressible emotional love for someone or (less often) something; sentimentally affected by such love.
Dilute, lacking in taste or potency.
We were served stale bread and weak tea.
Displaying a particular kind of inflection, including: Regular in inflection, lacking vowel changes and having a past tense marked by /-d-/, /-t-/, or /-ð-/.
The verb to walk is weak because it has a past tense of walked and all forms are inflected by adding the typical suffix (ie is regular) to the stem walk- (ie has no vowel changes).
The verb to run is strong, not weak, because the past tense is ran.
Displaying a particular kind of inflection, including: Showing less distinct grammatical endings.
Displaying a particular kind of inflection, including: Definite in meaning, often used with a definite article or similar word.
Displaying a particular kind of inflection, including: Related to, containing, or being a consonant which is prone to disappearing in some inflections, in most applicable languages including (but not limited to) w and y.
In some Semitic languages such as Akkadian, some or all gutturals are weak and often disappear, but in others such as Arabic and Ugaritic, they are strong and never disappear.
The reflexes of the Proto-Semitic verb *mawut- (“to die”) are often weak due to the presence of w, for example: Arabic مَاتَ (māta), Hebrew מֵת (mēṯ), and Ugaritic 𐎎𐎚 (mt /māta/).
Displaying a particular kind of inflection, including: Related to, being, or containing the lenis consonant gradation, which resulted from historically closed syllables.
The Finnish verb kääntää (“to translate”) inflects to the singular imperative as käännä, showing the weak gradation nt > nn because it historically ended in a consonant which closed the syllable.
Of a form in which the accent tends to shift forwards (to the right, in transcription) or did so ancestrally in Proto-Indo-European, relative to the strong stem (which has the leftmost accent allowed).
The PIE zero grade was most often found in weak stems, such as in *mn̥téys (“of thought, from thinking”, genitive/ablative singular of *méntis) and *mn̥yóh₂er (“I am thinking”). Over time it spread to strong stems, i.e. *mń̥tis, by processes of analogy and leveling. The full grade was persistent in the first syllable of reduplicated stative verbs: strong *tetórph₂e (“I am satisfied”), weak *tetr̥pmé (“we all are satisfied”), though for some verbs such as *pí-ph₃-e- (“to drink”) there was an unusual i-grade which may have lacked any distinct weak counterpart.
Of a form in which the accent tends to shift forwards (to the right, in transcription) or did so ancestrally in Proto-Indo-European, relative to the strong stem (which has the leftmost accent allowed). In a grammatical case other than nominative, accusative, vocative or sometimes locative singular.
Of a form in which the accent tends to shift forwards (to the right, in transcription) or did so ancestrally in Proto-Indo-European, relative to the strong stem (which has the leftmost accent allowed). In a conjugation other than singular active forms (regardless of person, tense etc.).
All middle forms of Indo-European verbs are traditionally weak. Middle-only verbs can still be compared to hypothetical strong stems, such as weak *ǵn̥h₁-yé- (e.g. *ǵn̥h₁yéto, “(he/she/it) was born”) versus strong *ǵénh₁-ye-.
Lenis, pronounced with less force or less markedness.
That does not ionize completely into anions and cations in a solution.
a weak acid
a weak base
One of the four fundamental forces associated with nuclear decay.
Bad or uncool.
This place is weak.
Having a narrow range of logical consequences; narrowly applicable. (Often contrasted with a strong statement which implies it.)
Resulting from, or indicating, lack of judgment, discernment, or firmness; unwise; hence, foolish.
Not having power to convince; not supported by force of reason or truth; unsustained.
The prosecution advanced a weak case.
Lacking in vigour or expression.
a weak sentence; a weak style
Not prevalent or effective, or not felt to be prevalent; not potent; feeble.
Tending towards lower prices.
a weak market; wheat is weak at present
Lacking contrast.
a weak negative
Where this word comes from
From Middle English waik, wayk, wayke, weik, weyk, borrowed from Old Norse veikr (“weak”), from Proto-Germanic *waikwaz (“weak, yielded, pliant, bendsome”), from *wīkwaną (“to cease, fold, yield; to retreat”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyg- (“to bend, turn, wind”), from *weh₁y- (“to plait, twist, weave, wind; to cover, enclose, wrap”). Cognates Cognate with Old English wāc (“bendsome, weak”), Saterland Frisian wook (“soft, gentle, tender”), West Frisian weak (“soft”), Dutch week (“soft, weak”), German weich (“soft, weak”), Luxembourgish weech (“weak”), Yiddish ווייך (veykh, “soft”), Danish veg (“weak”), Faroese and Icelandic veikur (“weak”), Norwegian Bokmål veik, vek (“weak; pliant”), Norwegian Nynorsk veik (“weak”), Swedish vek (“weak, pliant”), Estonian vaik, vaikne (“quiet”), Finnish vaieta (“to fall silent; to be silent; to keep silent; to suppress by not discussing”), Ingrian vaiketa (“quiet down”); also Cornish gwigh (“winkles”), Irish faocha, faochóg (“periwinkle”), Latin vicis (“change; time; season; succession; lot; place, room, stead”), vieo (“to bend”), Ancient Greek οἴγω (oígō, “to open”), Albanian vig (“bier, litter, stretcher”), Lithuanian vyti (“to twist, wind”), Belarusian віць (vicʹ, “to twist, weave”), Bulgarian ви́я (víja, “to bend, twist; to roam; to swirl”), Czech vít (“to weave, wind; to wrap”), Polish and Upper Sorbian wić (“to plait, weave; to wriggle, writhe”), Russian вить (vitʹ, “to wind; to twist, weave”), Serbo-Croatian ви̏ти, vȉti (“to twist”), Slovene viti (“to twist”), Ukrainian ви́ти (výty, “to twist, wind; to plait; to build a nest; to curl”), Northern Kurdish avêtin, avitin, avîtin, havêtin, havîtin (“to cast, throw”), Persian آویختن (âvixtan, “to hang, suspend”), بیختن (bēxtan / bixtan, “to sift”), Sanskrit वेग (vega, “speed, impetus; stream; agitation; impetuosity; strength; haste; the flight of an arrow; love; delight; expulsion; semen; attack; constipation”). Related to Old English wīcan (“to yield”). Related to week and wick. The grammar sense is a calque of German schwach.
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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.