Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

lethargic

/ləˈθɑɹd͡ʒɪk/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 2.78 in modern English

Syllables: lethar-gic
IPA: /ləˈθɑɹd͡ʒɪk/

15

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

3

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Sluggish, slow.

adj

Indifferent, apathetic.

Example Sentences

"[That cat] hasn't caught a mouse since he was a slip of a kitten. Except when eating, he does nothing but sleep. Lethargic is the word that springs to the lips. If you cast an eye on him, you will see that he's asleep now."
"She was, in fact, constitutionally impervious to statistics and preferred to study the be-headphoned group of fifteen or so lethargic wanderers who were taking even less notice of the remorseless squawkings than she was."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ληθαργικός (lēthargikós), from λήθαργος (lḗthargos, “forgetful, lethargic”), from λήθη (lḗthē, “a forgetting, forgetfulness”) (from which Lethe (“river in Hades”)) + ἀργός (argós, “not working”). By surface analysis, lethargy + -ic.

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ləˈθɑɹd͡ʒɪk/
British English: /ləˈθɑː.d͡ʒɪk/

Inflected Forms

more lethargic (comparative) most lethargic (superlative) lethargick (alternative, obsolete)

Derived Forms

antilethargic lethargically lethargicness

Frequently Paired Words

alethic alethiology lethargy Lethe philalethia

Synonyms

torpid lazy unmoving abeyant at rest cessant dormant dull fallow hibernating idle inactive

Questions

How do you pronounce lethargic?: The recorded pronunciation is /ləˈθɑɹd͡ʒɪk/.
What does lethargic mean?: Sluggish, slow.
Where does lethargic come from?: Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ληθαργικός (lēthargikós), from λήθαργος (lḗthargos, “forgetful, lethargic”), from λήθη (lḗthē, “a forgetting, forgetfulness”) (from which Lethe (“river in Hades”)) + ἀργός (argós, “not working”). By surface analysis, lethargy + -ic.

How to pronounce lethargic

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “lethargic”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ləˈθɑɹd͡ʒɪk/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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