weak
/wi(ː)k/adjective
weak is spelled W-E-A-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 46 times per million words in written English, the 2,204th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “weak vs week” about 1,000 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, weak means “Lacking in force (usually strength) or ability” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in weak?
| Letters | 4: W-E-A-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 46 times per million words; the 2,204th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is weak?
Weak appears 46 times per million words in written English, the 2,204th 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).
How do you pronounce weak?
- /wi(ː)k/
- [wɪik]
Weak has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-weak.wav, En-us-weak.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with weak
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: week (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with weak?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as weak.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: wake, weka.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of weak
- weaker comparative
- weakest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does weak mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Lacking in force (usually strength) or ability.
The child was too weak to move the boulder.
- 2
Unable to sustain a great weight, pressure, or strain.
a weak timber; a weak rope
- 3
Limp, soft.
- 4
Unable to withstand temptation, urgency, persuasion, etc.; easily impressed, moved, or overcome; accessible; vulnerable.
weak resolutions; weak virtue
- 5
Having a strong, irrepressible emotional love for someone or (less often) something; sentimentally affected by such love.
- 6
Dilute, lacking in taste or potency.
We were served stale bread and weak tea.
- 7
Regular in inflection, lacking vowel changes and having a past tense marked by /-d-/, /-t-/, or /-ð-/.
The verb to walk is weak because it has a past tense of walked and all forms are inflected by adding the typical suffix (ie is regular) to the stem walk- (ie has no vowel changes).
- 8
Showing less distinct grammatical endings.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate weak?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of weak: wk..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Weak in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | faible, débile |
| German | schwach , out, unschön, häßlich |
| Portuguese | fraco, débil, frouxo |
| Spanish | débil, feble, flaco, flojo, pilishte, pilishne |
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 weak come from?
From Middle English waik, wayk, wayke, weik, weyk, borrowed from Old Norse veikr (“weak”), from Proto-Germanic *waikwaz (“weak, yielded, pliant, bendsome”), from *wīkwaną (“to cease, fold, yield; to retreat”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyg- (“to bend, turn, wind”), from *weh₁y- (“to plait, twist, weave, wind; to cover, enclose, wrap”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).