akrasia means lack of physical or (especially) mental strength; poor willpower; also, the tendency to act contrary to one's better judgment; (countable) an instance of this.
akrasia is pronounced /əˈkɹeɪ.zɪ.ə/.
Why “akrasia” is a great word
The state of acting against one's better judgment due to a failure of will. From Ancient Greek ἀκρασία (akrasía), from ἀ- (a-, "without") + κράτος (krátos, "power, strength, dominion"). Unlike "apathy," which implies a hollow absence of concern, or "procrastination," which names a specific delay, akrasia is the specific tragedy of knowing and wanting the better thing yet reaching for the worse. It is the smoker's hand trembling toward the pack at midnight, the student opening social media with the essay document glowing behind it, the decisive 'no' curdling in the throat into a whispered 'yes'—the quiet, daily civil war where victory was already decided, yet somehow lost.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓κρᾰσῐ́ᾱ (ăkrăsĭ́ā), a variant of ᾰ̓κρᾰ́τειᾰ (ăkrắteiă, “lack of power, debility, impotence; lack of self-control, incontinence; self-indulgence”), from ἀκρατής (akratḗs, “having no authority, powerless; unable to exercise self-control, incontinent”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Ἀκρατής (Akratḗs) is derived from ᾰ̓- (ă-, prefix forming terms having a sense opposite to the stems or words to which it is attached) + κρᾰ́τος (krắtos, “might, strength; dominion, power”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kret- (“insight, intelligence; strength”)) + -ής (-ḗs, suffix forming third-declension adjectives). Doublet of acratia.
noun
- Lack of physical or (especially) mental strength; poor willpower; also, the tendency to act contrary to one's better judgment; (countable) an instance of this.“His [Homer's] Olympian gods live by passion and propensity rather than by principle; their besetting sin is a fault of inclination to what they like, not of absolute malignity; it belongs to the akrasia, not the absolute kakia of Aristotle.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- acrasia 93% match — Lack of self-control; excess, intemperance; also, irregular or unruly behaviour. vs akrasia →
- acrasy 87% match — Synonym of acrasia (“lack of self-control; intemperance, excess; also, irregular or unruly behaviour”); (countable) an instance of this. vs akrasia →
- accedie 82% match — Acedia. vs akrasia →
- acedia 82% match — 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. vs akrasia →
- accidie 82% match — Sloth, slothfulness, especially as inducing general listlessness and apathy. vs akrasia →
- prohairesis 82% match — The Stoic principle that people have a choice in how they judge, and are affected by, externalities. vs akrasia →
- velleity 81% match — The lowest degree of desire or volition; a total lack of effort to act. vs akrasia →
- lethargy 81% match — A state of extreme torpor, sopor or apathy, especially with lack of emotion, energy or enthusiasm; (loosely) sluggishness, laziness. vs akrasia →