weakening
noun, verb
weakening is spelled W-E-A-K-E-N-I-N-G: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,122nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, weakening means “An instance or process of loss of strength” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of weakening is weakenings.
How many letters and syllables are in weakening?
| Letters | 9: W-E-A-K-E-N-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.5 times per million words; the 17,122nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is weakening?
Weakening appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,122nd 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 weakening?
- US
Weakening has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-weakening.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of weakening
- weakenings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does weakening mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An instance or process of loss of strength.
- 2
A structural principle of mathematical logic that states that the hypotheses of any derived fact may be freely extended with additional assumptions.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of weaken
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Weakening in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense loss of strength:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | affaiblissement |
| German | Abschwächung, Schwächung |
| Portuguese | fraquejo |
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.