paralysis

US/pəˈɹæləsəs/

paralysis noun: the complete loss of voluntary control of part of a living body, such as one or more limbs.

Noun

paralysis (countable and uncountable, plural paralyses)

The complete loss of voluntary control of part of a living body, such as one or more limbs.
A state of being unable to act.
- The government has been in a paralysis since it lost its majority in the parliament.
- Until then, the Sunak administration remains a study in ineffectuality on multiple fronts, leading Goldsmith to cite, not unreasonably, “a kind of paralysis”.2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2023

paralysis meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

paralysis in Hindi

loss of muscle control: लक़वा laqvā, पक्षाघात pakṣāghāt, अंगघात aṅgghāt, फ़ालिज fālij

paralysis in Tamil

loss of muscle control: பக்கவாதம் pakkavātam, பாரிசவாதம் pāricavātam

paralysis in Marathi

अर्धांगवायू

paralysis in Urdu

loss of muscle control: لَقْوَہ laqvā, فالِج fālij

More languagesFewer languages

paralysis in Bengali: শরীরের কোনো অংশের অচলতা, পক্ষাঘাত
paralysis in Telugu: పక్షవాతము pakṣavātamu
paralysis in Malayalam: തളർവാതം taḷaṟvātaṁ, തളർച്ച taḷaṟcca
paralysis in Kannada: ಲಕ್ವ, ಪಾರ್ಶ್ವವಾಯು, ಪಕ್ಷವಾತ, ಅರನಾರಿ
paralysis in Gujarati: લખવો lakhvo, લકવો lakvo, પક્ષાઘાત pakṣāghāt
paralysis in Odia: ପକ୍ଷାଘାତ, ପାରାଲାଇସିସ
paralysis in Sanskrit: भङ्ग bhaṅgá
paralysis in Nepali: पक्षाघात
paralysis in Arabic: شَلَل šalal, فَالَج fālaj
paralysis in Malay: kelumpuhan
paralysis in Persian: فلج falaj
paralysis in Thai: อัมพาต am-má-pâat
paralysis in Vietnamese: liệt

Examples of paralysis in a sentence

Infantile paralysis left him lame for the rest of his life.
In a small number of horses, muscle weakness may progress to paralysis.
Car accidents lead to many cervical spine injuries and various levels of paralysis.

All 32 example sentences with paralysis

Synonyms of paralysis

Forms of paralysis

plural	paralyses

Plural of paralysis: paralyses

Origin of paralysis

Borrowed from Latin paralysis, from Ancient Greek παράλυσις (parálusis, “palsy”), from παραλύω (paralúō, “to disable on one side”). By surface analysis, para- + -lysis. Doublet of palsy.

Phrases with paralysis

Questions about paralysis

What does paralysis mean?: Paralysis means the complete loss of voluntary control of part of a living body, such as one or more limbs.
What is paralysis in Hindi?: Paralysis in Hindi is लक़वा (laqvā), पक्षाघात (pakṣāghāt), अंगघात (aṅgghāt). See Paralysis meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is paralysis?: Paralysis is a noun.
How do you pronounce paralysis?: Paralysis is pronounced /pəˈɹæləsəs/ (US).
What is the plural of paralysis?: The plural of paralysis is paralyses.

Words near paralysis in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: paralysis (page history and authors); paralysis (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); paralysis (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); തളർച്ച (Malayalam) (page history and authors); paralysis (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); પક્ષાઘાત (Gujarati) (page history and authors); paralysis (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); भङ्ग (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); paralysis (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-paralysis.wav.

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