fragility.

Susceptibility to breaking, damage or loss of effective functioning under relatively modest strain.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• structural fragility
• financial fragility

On the page

The report linked financial fragility to dependence on one unstable source of income.

The object’s fragility required support at points that looked strong but fractured easily.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: definition, comparison, qualification, causal analysis. Disciplines: academic writing, institutional analysis, general research. Commonness: moderately common.