Fragile

How to spell fragile

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fragile

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fragile mean?

1. adjectiveEasily broken, damaged, or destroyed; delicate and needing careful handling.

Fragile in a sentence

• The movers wrapped every fragile vase in thick layers of bubble wrap.

• Old photographs become fragile and yellow if they are stored in damp conditions.

Where does fragile come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin fragilis, meaning 'easily broken', which was built on the verb frangere, 'to break' or 'to shatter'. English took it in through Old French during the 1400s, and an earlier, more native-feeling form of the same Latin source also gave us 'frail', so the two words are essentially siblings that arrived by different routes. The same frangere root sits inside 'fracture', 'fragment', and 'fraction', all of which carry the idea of something broken into pieces. The spelling keeps the Latin -ile ending rather than the French-flavoured shape, and that quiet, unstressed final syllable, which sounds like 'jul' or 'jile' depending on the speaker, is the part writers most often second-guess.

How the word is built

• frag- (from frangere: to break)
• -ile (adjective suffix: able to be)