How do you pronounce debilitate?

The recorded pronunciation is /dəˈbɪləteɪt/.

debilitate

/dəˈbɪləteɪt/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.70 in modern English

Syllables: de-bil-i-tate
IPA: /dəˈbɪləteɪt/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To make feeble; to weaken.

Transitive verb

adj

Feeble, enfeebled.

Obsolete

Example Sentences

"The American Dream suffered a debilitating effect after the subprime crisis."
"The personal desire to forget is one thing, if practiced by historians it debilitates history."
"Twice, they found themselves behind, seemingly on their way out, and on both occasions they absolutely refused to let their lack of numbers debilitate them."
"It is powerfull in helping extenuat and leane perſons who are troubled with difficultie of drawing their Brath: gives vigour and ſtrength to vithered and debilitat members; […]"

Etymology

From debilitatus, the past passive participle of Latin dēbilitō (“to weaken, debilitate”), from the adjective dēbilis (“weak”), itself from de- + habilis (“able”). Equivalent to Latin dēbilitō + -ate (verb-forming suffix; adjective-forming suffix).

Origin

Source language: Latin

Word Breakdown

Root: dēbilitō

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /dəˈbɪləteɪt/
British English: /dɪˈbɪlɪteɪt/

Usage

Inflected Forms

debilitates (present, singular) debilitating (participle, present) debilitated (participle, past) debilitated (past) more debilitate (comparative) most debilitate (superlative)

Derived Forms

debilitative

Frequently Paired Words

debile debilitating debilitation debility enervate

Synonyms

enervate enfeeble weaken drain

Rhymes With

facilitate rehabilitate