lethargic
US/ləˈθɑɹd͡ʒɪk/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
New Zealand/ləˈθɑːd͡ʒək/
lethargic adjective: sluggish, slow.
Adjective
lethargic (comparative more lethargic, superlative most lethargic)
- Sluggish, slow.
- [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.1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII
- 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.1968, Christopher Hodder-Williams, “Hands”, in Fistful of Digits, London: Coronet Books, published 1972, →ISBN, page 125
- Indifferent, apathetic.
lethargic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
lethargic in Hindi
- sluggish, indifferent
- आलसी ālsī
lethargic in Tamil
- ஈடுபாடற்ற, சோம்பலான, மந்தமான
lethargic in Urdu
- lethargic
- آلسی ālsī
lethargic in Bengali
- lethargic, inactive
- অক্রিয় okriẏo
More languagesFewer languages
- lethargic in Telugu
- మందకొడి mandakoḍi
- lethargic in Malayalam
- ഉദാസീനമായ, ഉണർവ്വില്ലാത്ത, ജഡതയുള്ള, മന്ദമായ
- lethargic in Kannada
- ರೋಗದ ಮಂಪರಿನ, ಅತಿ ನಿದ್ರೆಯುಳ್ಳ, ತಾಮಸ, ಜಡ
- lethargic in Sanskrit
- अलस alasa
Synonyms of lethargic
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of lethargic
| comparative | more lethargic |
|---|---|
| superlative | most lethargic |
| alternative form (obsolete) | lethargick |
Origin of lethargic
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.
Words formed from lethargic
Questions about lethargic
- What does lethargic mean?
- Lethargic means sluggish, slow.
- What is lethargic in Hindi?
- Lethargic in Hindi is आलसी (ālsī). See Lethargic meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is lethargic?
- Lethargic is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce lethargic?
- Lethargic is pronounced /ləˈθɑɹd͡ʒɪk/ (US).
Words near lethargic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lethargic (page history and authors); lethargic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); آلسی (Urdu) (page history and authors); অক্রিয় (Bengali) (page history and authors); lethargic (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); lethargic (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lethargic.wav.
Cite this entry: “lethargic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lethargic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.