Meaning & use
lassitude
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Meanings
noununcountableliterary
A heavy feeling of tiredness in which you lack energy and the wish to do anything.
Grammar: Used without an article: a feeling of lassitude, not a lassitude.
Patterns
- lassitude of something
- sink into lassitude
A warm afternoon brought a pleasant lassitude over the whole house.
After weeks of illness, a deep lassitude settled on her.
He fought off the lassitude and went back to work.
noununcountablefigurativeformal
A lack of interest, effort or concern, especially in a group or society.
Grammar: Used figuratively for public or collective apathy: political lassitude.
Patterns
- lassitude among someone
Officials noticed a growing lassitude among voters.
The company's lassitude allowed rivals to take its customers.
A general lassitude followed the long campaign.
Common combinations
- deep lassitude
- A deep lassitude kept him in bed all morning.
- sink into lassitude
- After the holidays, the team sank into lassitude.
- lassitude and boredom
- Lassitude and boredom spread through the class.
- overcome by lassitude
- She was overcome by lassitude in the heat.
- shake off lassitude
- A walk in the cold helped him shake off his lassitude.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lethargy
- Often suggests a stronger, sometimes medical, sluggishness, while lassitude is gentler and more literary.
- weariness
- A plain word for tiredness, without lassitude's added sense of low interest.
- listlessness
- Emphasizes lack of spirit or interest more than physical tiredness.
- apathy
- Names indifference only, and does not imply physical fatigue the way lassitude does.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: lassitude or latitude?
lassitude vs latitude
Latitude is distance north or south of the equator, or freedom of action; lassitude is weariness. The two sound alike but are unrelated.
Practice
After the long flight, a feeling of ____ made it hard to do anything but sit.
Choose one answer.
Lassitude means weary lack of energy. Latitude, altitude and attitude sound similar but mean position, height and outlook.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lassitude”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.