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Enfeebled

Disease
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Made physically weak or diminished in strength, energy, or vitality, often through illness, age, hardship, or prolonged exhaustion.

Detailed Definition
Enfeebled suggests a gradual loss of force, whether caused by sickness, age, famine, injury, or despair. Unlike a sudden wound, it emphasizes diminished capacity and the slow thinning of energy. In poetry, an enfeebled voice may barely rise above silence, while an enfeebled river or empire may seem unable to continue its former course. The term works well where physical decline parallels failing authority, memory, or hope.
Example
Example in poetry:
The enfeebled soldier lifted his flag with hands that shook; An enfeebled sun barely warmed the late-November field; A poet may describe an enfeebled voice to show age, illness, or exhausted resistance; The enfeebled river moved through reeds, suggesting a landscape drained by drought
Additional Notes
Means weakened rather than completely disabled. It may describe bodies, voices, institutions, or fading resolve.
Also Known As
Weakened Debilitated Infirm Decrepit
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