acedia means spiritual or mental sloth and the feeling it provokes; apathy or indifference; a lack of care or interest and the resultant avoidance of duties; a bored melancholy leading to desperation, restlessness and anxiety.
acedia is pronounced /əˈsiːdɪə/.
Why “acedia” is a great word
A state of spiritual or mental sloth, characterized by apathy, indifference, and a listless lack of care or motivation, often leading to melancholy and restlessness. From Medieval Latin acēdia, borrowed from Greek ἀκηδία (akēdia, "lack of care, negligence"), from ἀ- (a-, "without") + κῆδος (kēdos, "care, concern"). Unlike "apathy," a general absence of feeling, or "sloth," which implies mere physical laziness, acedia is a torpor of the soul, a moral failing that carries the specific ache of listlessness. It is the monk staring blankly at his breviary while the candle gutters, the artist surrounded by unfinished canvases unable to begin, the sufferer who cannot muster the energy to name what ails them—a profound fatigue not of the body, but of the will to care at all, arriving not in darkness but in the full light of duty, when the spirit refuses its own warmth.
noun
- Spiritual or mental sloth and the feeling it provokes; apathy or indifference; a lack of care or interest and the resultant avoidance of duties; a bored melancholy leading to desperation, restlessness and anxiety.“Her acedia kept her trapped in a cycle of depression and torpor.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- accidie 95% match — Sloth, slothfulness, especially as inducing general listlessness and apathy. vs acedia →
- accedie 95% match — Acedia. vs acedia →
- lethargy 88% match — A state of extreme torpor, sopor or apathy, especially with lack of emotion, energy or enthusiasm; (loosely) sluggishness, laziness. vs acedia →
- lassitude 87% match — Lethargy or lack of energy; fatigue, languor, listlessness vs acedia →
- languor 85% match — A state of the body or mind caused by exhaustion or disease and characterized by a languid or weary feeling; lassitude; (countable) an instance of this. vs acedia →
- hebetude 85% match — Mental lethargy or dullness. vs acedia →
- incuriosity 85% match — The quality or state of lacking curiosity. vs acedia →
- sloth 85% match — Laziness; slowness of mind; disinclination to action or labour; a feeling combining indifference and lethargy; a dragging idleness. vs acedia →