Weaker

How to spell weaker

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce weaker

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does weaker mean?

1. adjectiveHaving less strength, power, or intensity than something else being compared.

Weaker in a sentence

• After the long illness his grip felt much weaker than before.

• The coffee in the office machine is far weaker than the kind she brews at home.

Where does weaker come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base word weak entered English from the Old Norse veikr, meaning 'pliant', 'bendable', or 'soft', a sense connected to the idea of something that yields or gives way easily. This Norse form gradually replaced the related native Old English wac, which carried much the same meaning, so the modern spelling owes a debt to the Viking settlers who shaped so much of northern English vocabulary. By the medieval period weak had settled into its familiar sense of 'lacking strength' in body, force, or quality. The comparative weaker is formed in the regular English way, simply by adding the suffix -er to mark 'more weak'. The spelling trap is small but real: the ea vowel team produces a long 'ee' sound that writers sometimes want to render as 'ee', and people occasionally confuse it with the unrelated noun 'week'.

How the word is built

• weak (from Old Norse veikr: pliant, soft)
• -er (comparative suffix)