debilitating
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
4.3 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2025
⏱️ 2 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2025 is:
debilitating • \dih-BILL-uh-tay-ting\ • adjective
Debilitating is a formal word used to describe things that seriously impair strength or the ability to function.
// She suffers from debilitating migraines.
// The class helped him conquer his debilitating fear of public speaking.
Examples:
"Worry is such a debilitating thing that robs you of your energy ..." — Georgia Nicols, The Denver Post, 3 Apr. 2025
Did you know?
Debilitating describes things that cause serious impairment of strength or ability to function. The word appears in both medical and general contexts; someone can suffer from debilitating nausea or debilitating stage fright. An adjective that takes the form of a verb, debilitating dates to the mid-17th century, making it the youngest of a trio: its source, the verb debilitate ("to impair the strength of"), dates to the early 16th century, and the noun debility ("weakness, infirmity") has been in use since the 15th century. All come from the Latin word for "weak," debilis. Polyglots may recognize the influence of debilis in words from Spanish, Russian, Czech, Turkish, Danish, and many other languages as well.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's the Word of the Day podcast for June 11th. |
| 0:12.0 | Today's word is debilitating, spelled D-E-B-I-L-I-T-A-T-I-N-G. |
| 0:20.1 | Dibilitating is an adjective. It's a formal word used to describe things that |
| 0:24.9 | seriously impair strength or the ability to function. Here's the word used in a sentence from the |
| 0:30.7 | Denver Post by Georgia Nichols. Worry is such a debilitating thing that robs you of your energy. |
| 0:38.4 | The word debilitating describes things that cause serious impairment of strength or ability to function. |
| 0:45.6 | It appears in both medical and general contexts. Someone can suffer from debilitating nausea or |
| 0:51.9 | debilitating stage fright. An adjective that takes the form of a verb, debilitating dates to the mid-17th century, |
| 1:00.3 | making it the youngest of a trio. |
| 1:02.0 | Its source, the verb debilitate, meaning to impair the strength of, |
| 1:06.6 | dates to the early 16th century, and the noun debility, meaning weakness or infirmity, |
| 1:12.1 | has been in use since the 15th century. All come from the Latin word for weak, debilis. |
| 1:19.3 | Polyglots may recognize the influence of debilis in words from Spanish, Russian, Czech, Turkish, Danish, |
| 1:26.5 | and many other languages as well. |
| 1:29.0 | With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 25 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Merriam-Webster, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Merriam-Webster and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.