# brittle

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈbɹɪtl̩/ · frequency rank #20,054

## Definitions
1. Inflexible; liable to break, snap, or shatter easily under stress, pressure, or impact.
2. Not physically tough or tenacious; apt to break or crumble when bending.
3. Tending to fracture in a conchoidal way; capable of being knapped or flaked.
4. Emotionally fragile, easily offended.
5. Poorly error- or fault-tolerant; having little in the way of redundancy or defense in depth; susceptible to catastrophic failure in the event of a relatively-minor malfunction or deviance.
6. Characterized by dramatic swings in blood sugar level.

## Etymology
From Middle English britel, brutel, brotel (“brittle”), from Old English *brytel, *bryttol (“brittle, fragile”, literally “prone to or tending to break”); equivalent to brit + -le.

## Easily confused with
- **Britt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/britt-vs-brittle)
- **battle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/battle-vs-brittle)
- **bottle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bottle-vs-brittle)
- **bridle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bridle-vs-brittle)
- **bristle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bristle-vs-brittle)
- **belittle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/belittle-vs-brittle)

## Common misspellings (9)
`bbrittle`, `birttle`, `britle`, `britlte`, `brittel`, `brittlle`, `brrittle`, `brtitle`, `rbittle`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/brittle