Word.ws English Dictionary

acedia

/əˈsiːdɪə/

acedia noun: spiritual or mental sloth and the feeling it provokes; apathy or indifference; a lack of care or interest and the resultant avoidance of duties; a bored melancholy leading to desperation, restlessness and anxiety.

Noun

acedia (uncountable)

  1. Spiritual or mental sloth and the feeling it provokes; apathy or indifference; a lack of care or interest and the resultant avoidance of duties; a bored melancholy leading to desperation, restlessness and anxiety.
    • Her acedia kept her trapped in a cycle of depression and torpor.
    • Yet I have come to believe that acedia can strike anyone whose work requires self - motivation and solitudeyear-2008, Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life, Riverhead Books, page 6

acedia meaning in Tamil and Kannada

acedia in Tamil

கவனமின்மை, மறைப்பு, உணர்ச்சியின்மை, மடிமை, மலைப்பு, உணர்ச்சியின்றி சோர்வாக இருத்தல்

acedia in Kannada

ಅಲಸಿಕೆ, ಮನಗುಂದಿಕೆ

Synonyms of acedia

All synonyms of acedia

Forms of acedia

alternative formaccedie

Origin of acedia

Borrowed from Latin acēdia, borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀκηδίᾱ (akēdíā), from ἀκηδής (akēdḗs, “careless”) + -ίᾱ (-íā). Doublet of accidie.

Words formed from acedia

Questions about acedia

What does acedia mean?
Acedia means spiritual or mental sloth and the feeling it provokes; apathy or indifference; a lack of care or interest and the resultant avoidance of duties; a bored melancholy leading to desperation, restlessness and anxiety.
What is acedia in Tamil?
Acedia in Tamil is கவனமின்மை, மறைப்பு, உணர்ச்சியின்மை. See Acedia meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is acedia?
Acedia is a noun.
How do you pronounce acedia?
Acedia is pronounced /əˈsiːdɪə/.

Words near acedia in the dictionary

  1. aceconitic acid
  2. aced
  3. aced into
  4. aced out
  5. acedapsone
  6. acedia
  7. acediast
  8. acediasts
  9. acediasulfone
  10. Acedillo
  11. acedious

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: acedia (page history and authors); acedia (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); acedia (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “acedia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/acedia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.