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fragility

fragility

17 5.2
Something that is easy to break or damage, like glass
  • noun
  • /frəˈdʒɪlɪti/
translation icon : fragilidad
  • In truth, life's beauty and its fragility are interwoven.
  • fragility and vulnerability
  • aware of the fragility
  • fragility of democracy

I find that Americans see the fragility in changes.

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Examples

  • Life's beauty and its fragility are interwoven.

  • Just long enough for you to appreciate the fragility of our delicate ecosystem.

  • You know, the reality of life is that beauty and fragility hold hands with one another.

  • But this incident with John made me realize the fragility of all this.

  • But I fear the loss of her parents... has given her a certain fragility.

  • At any other moment, such fragility in a human being would have cast me back on my own mortality.

    Academic text (2011)
  • We can look for beauty and embrace our ultimate fragility any time we choose.

    Academic text (1999)
  • There's a lot of talk about the fragility of long term relationships and divorce rates going up.

  • It has shown both the fragility of our globe and the fragility of American democracy.

  • The fragility of the antique vase made me nervous as I carried it to the display.

Synonyms

vulnerability
vsfragility
156 5.1

A state of being easily harmed physically or emotionally

is specific to being easily broken or damaged rather than general harm
brittleness
vsfragility
1 5.4

Hard and breaks easily, like glass

is broader, applying to easy breakage in more contexts
flimsiness
vsfragility
1 4.4

Being weak and not well made so it breaks or fails easily

is broader, covering inherent ease of breakage as well as poor build
breakability
vsfragility
5.8

How easily something breaks or gets damaged

is the same meaning but may differ as a form or label
frangibleness
vsfragility
9.9

The quality of being easily broken or damaged

is identical in sense but differs only in word form
frangibility
vsfragility
9.9

The ability of something to break easily

is the same idea presented with a different form
breakableness
vsfragility
9.2

How easily something is damaged or comes apart when dropped

covers the same ease of breakage but in broader use
destructibility
vsfragility
7.7

How easily something can be broken or ruined

includes both ease of damage and full destruction as well
damageability
vsfragility
7.6

A measure of how easily something can be harmed or broken

adds the idea of being easily broken or destroyed beyond mere damage
snappiness
vsfragility
4.8

How easily a material breaks or snaps

covers all forms of easy breaking, not only sudden snaps

Antonyms

1.2

Physical or mental power a person has to act

22 3.8

The ability of something to last a long time without getting damaged

How Fragile

frailty
3 5.0
brittleness
1 5.4
fragility
17 5.2
delicacy
4 5.3
sturdiness
1 3.4
robustness
2 5.5

Surface Forms

fragility singular
fragilities plural

Morphology

fragility = fragile (transparent) = fragile + ity

A standard nominalization of the adjective 'fragile' with '-ity'; the meaning is directly derived.

Etymology

Fragility comes from the Latin root frag- meaning 'to break', which you can see in familiar words like fragile and fragment. So, fragility is the quality of being 'easily broken' or damaged.