weaknesses
- 1Plural of weakness.
The audit exposed several weaknesses in the company's security systems.
She freely admitted her weaknesses during the job interview.
Note
Only the countable meanings of weakness can take a plural. These are the faults and flaws a person or a system has, and the special fondnesses someone gives in to. The condition of being weak has no plural, so weaknesses always points to particular failings or particular cravings, never to a general state of feebleness.
- 2Plural of weaknesse.
Note
Here the spelling hides a merger. The obsolete singular weaknesse, with its extra final e, and the modern weakness share exactly the same plural, so nothing on the page tells them apart. A reader of older texts can treat these weaknesses as the ordinary plural. Only the singular shows the older spelling, and it does not belong in modern writing.
weaknesses is a form of weakness
weakness, noun: The condition of lacking strength, whether in the body, the mind, or the structure of something. Full entry
- Forms
- weaknessweaknesses plural
- Spelling
- weakness → weaknesses: add -es
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /ɪz/, an extra syllable.
Use it in a sentence
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