weak ‧ ness W3 /ˈwiːknəs, ˈwiːknɪs/ BrE AmE noun
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ weakling , ↑ weakness ; verb : ↑ weaken ; adverb : ↑ weakly ; adjective : ↑ weak ]
1 . FAULT [countable] a fault in someone’s character or in a system, organization, design etc:
The legislation has a fundamental weakness.
The plan has strengths and weaknesses.
2 . LACK OF POWER [uncountable] lack of strength, power, or influence
weakness in
weakness in the economy
weakness of
the growing weakness of local government
3 . BODY [uncountable] the state of being physically weak:
muscular weakness
weakness in
weakness in the right arm
4 . CHARACTER [uncountable] lack of determination shown in someone’s behaviour:
He couldn’t explain his weakness in giving in to her demands.
I dared not cry or show any sign of weakness.
weakness of
his weakness of character
5 . MONEY [uncountable] the condition of not being worth a lot of money
weakness of
the weakness of the pound against the dollar
6 . a weakness for something if you have a weakness for something, you like it very much even though it may not be good for you:
I have a real weakness for fashionable clothes.
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THESAURUS
■ something wrong
▪ fault a problem in a machine, system, design etc that causes damage or makes it not work properly:
The fire was caused by an electrical fault.
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a fault in the engine
▪ defect a fault in something such as a product or machine, resulting from the way it was made or designed:
Cars are tested for defects before they leave the factory.
▪ weakness a part of a plan, system, or argument that is not as good as the other parts, and makes it likely to fail:
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each method?
▪ flaw a fault in a plan, system, argument etc, especially one that makes it useless or not effective:
Your argument has a fundamental flaw.
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There was one major flaw in his suggestion – we didn’t have enough money.
▪ bug a fault in a computer program:
A bug in the system was quickly fixed.
▪ glitch a small fault in the way something works, that can usually be easily corrected:
I noticed a small glitch when installing the software.
▪ mistake something that is wrong in someone’s spelling, grammar, calculations etc:
The article was full of spelling mistakes.
▪ there’s something wrong with something used when saying that there is a problem in a machine, car etc, but you do not know what it is:
There’s something wrong with the computer – it won’t close down.