fragile means easily broken, not sturdy; of delicate material. It carries an Arena rating of 1547, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, fragile ranks #275 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,064 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,422 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #2,486 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
fragile is pronounced /ˈfɹæd͡ʒaɪl/.
Why “fragile” is a great word
Easily broken or damaged, physically or abstractly. From Middle French fragile, from Latin fragilis ("easily broken"), formed on the root frag- of frangere ("to break"), first attested in English c. 1600. Unlike "frail," which suggests a constitutional weakness in the living, or "delicate," which implies fineness requiring care, "fragile" states the bald fact of breakability with the sharper warning of imminent collapse. It is the thinness of an heirloom teacup, the tension in a ceasefire, the precise quality of a happiness held too tightly—each a small architecture of potential loss, reminding us that what is whole is only temporarily so, and that some things are not meant to endure, only to be held, for a little while, with care.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French fragile, from Latin fragilis, formed on frag-, the root of frangere (“to break”). Cognate with fraction, fracture and doublet of frail.
adj
- Easily broken, not sturdy; of delicate material.e.g.“She caught the fragile vase before it could shatter on the floor.”
- Readily disrupted or destroyed.e.g.“The UN tries to maintain the fragile peace process in the region.”
- Feeling weak or easily disturbed as a result of illness.
- Thin-skinned or oversensitive.e.g.“He is a very fragile person and gets easily depressed.”
noun
- Something that is fragile.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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