decrepitude
/dəˈkɹɛpɪˌtuːd/noun
decrepitude is a noun meaning “The state of being decrepit or worn out from age or long use” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled D-E-C-R-E-P-I-T-U-D-E, and it appears about once in every 16 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of decrepitude is decrepitudes.
What does decrepitude mean?
noun
- 1
The state of being decrepit or worn out from age or long use.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce decrepitude?
- UK /dɪˈkɹɛpɪtʃuːd/
- US /dəˈkɹɛpɪˌtuːd/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Mathmitch7-decrepitude.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of decrepitude
- decrepitudes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is decrepitude?
Decrepitude appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Decrepitude in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the state of being decrepit:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | décrépitude |
| German | Abnutzung, Altersschwäche, Verfall |
| Portuguese | decrepitude |
| Spanish | decrepitud |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does decrepitude come from?
From Middle French décrépitude, from Old French, from Latin dēcrepitūdō (“decrepitude”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).