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weakling

/ˈwiːkˈlɪŋɡ/noun, adjective

weakling is spelled W-E-A-K-L-I-N-G: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 57,423rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, weakling means “A person of weak or even sickly physical constitution” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of weakling is weaklings.

How many letters and syllables are in weakling?

Letters8: W-E-A-K-L-I-N-G
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 4 million words; the 57,423rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 weakling?

Weakling appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 57,423rd 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 weakling?

  • /ˈwiːkˈlɪŋɡ/
  • /ˈwiːklɪŋɡ/

Weakling has 2 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)-Vealhurl-weakling.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of weakling

  • weaklings plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does weakling mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A person of weak or even sickly physical constitution.

  2. 2

    A person of weak character, lacking in courage and/or moral strength.

adjective

  1. 1

    weak, either physically, morally or mentally

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Weakling in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchgringalet (person of weak or even sickly physical…), poule mouillée, chiffe molle (person of weak character)
GermanSchwächling (person of weak or even sickly physical…), Feigling, Weichei (person of weak character)
Portuguesefracote (person of weak or even sickly physical…)
Spanishenclenque (person of weak or even sickly physical…), pusilánime (person of weak character), fuñingue (weak, either physically, morally or mentally)

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 weakling come from?

From weak + -ling.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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