plight means A dire or unfortunate situation. It carries an Arena rating of 1599, earned across 11 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, plight ranks #263 of 17,136 for Most Malleable Words, #544 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,158 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,506 of 17,128 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
plight is pronounced /plaɪt/.
Why “plight” is a great word
A dangerous, difficult, or unfortunate situation or condition, or the act of making a solemn pledge. The noun emerges from Middle English plit, a conflation of Anglo-Norman plit (from Old French pleit, "condition, fold," from Vulgar Latin *plictum, from Latin plicitum, "fold") and Middle English pliht (from Old English pliht, "danger, risk," from Proto-West Germanic *plihti, "care, responsibility"), first attested c. 1200; the verb, from Middle English plighten (from Old English plihtan, "to endanger, pledge"), predates 1000. Unlike "predicament," which suggests a puzzling entanglement of circumstances, or "pledge," a general, neutral promise, "plight" as a noun carries the weight of the distress itself, and as a verb denotes the archaic, grave act of pledging one’s troth. It is the mud clinging to the hem of a wedding dress, the farmer watching his parched fields crack, the silence between two people who have sworn themselves to each other—a word pressed flat between the peril of a circumstance and the solemnity of the vow made within it.
Etymology
From Middle English plit (“fold, wrinkle, bad situation”), conflation of Middle English pliht, plight (“risky promise, peril”) (from Old English pliht "danger, risk"; see Etymology 2) and Anglo-Norman plit, plyte (“fold, condition”), from Old French pleit (“condition, manner of folding”) (from Vulgar Latin *plictum, from Latin plicitum (“fold”)).
noun
- A dire or unfortunate situation.e.g.“Though we say we are quite clear about it and understand when someone uses the expression, unlike that other expression, maybe we're in the same plight with regard to them both.” — 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 243c:
- A (neutral) condition or state.e.g.“although hee live in as good plight and health as may be, yet he chafeth, he scoldeth, he brawleth, he fighteth, he sweareth, and biteth, as the most boistrous and tempestuous master of France[…].” — 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
- Good health.e.g.“All wayes shee sought him to restore to plight, / With herbs, with charms, with counsel, and with teares[…].” — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Responsibility for ensuing consequences; risk; danger; peril.
- An instance of danger or peril; a dangerous moment or situation.
- Blame; culpability; fault; wrong-doing; sin; crime.
- One's office; duty; charge.
- That which is exposed to risk; that which is plighted or pledged; security; a gage; a pledge.e.g.“Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty” — c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, publishe
- A network; a plait; a fold; rarely a garment.e.g.“Many a folded plight.” — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 26:
verb
- To nominate an object of value as a security against a promise; to pledge something, as one's faith, trust, allegiance, or something symbolic of this.e.g.“"Travel shall I and woo;
Plight me shall I a flower;
Try shall I my sword so good,
To my weal or my woe in the stour."” — 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 170:
- Specifically, to pledge (one's troth etc.) as part of a marriage ceremony.
- To promise (oneself) to someone, or to do something.e.g.“I ask what I have done to deserve it, one daughter hobnobbing with radicals and the other planning to plight herself to a criminal.” — 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, page 226:
- To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- plighty 81% match — Relating to or indicating plight; misfortunate; dire; precarious; needy vs plight →
- plightful 75% match — Full of risk or danger; risky; dangerous; perilous. vs plight →
- plighting 68% match — The act by which something is plighted or pledged. vs plight →
- plighter 63% match — One who or that which plights, engages, or pledges. vs plight →
- plea 60% match — An appeal, petition, urgent prayer or entreaty. vs plight →
- plightly 57% match — Dangerously; with peril. vs plight →
- pity 54% match — A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something. vs plight →
- quandary 53% match — A state of not knowing what to decide; a state of difficulty or perplexity; a state of uncertainty, hesitation or puzzlement. vs plight →