Meaning & use
tiredness
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The state of feeling that you need rest or sleep because you have used up your energy.
Grammar: Uncountable: a wave of tiredness, not a tiredness.
Patterns
- feel tiredness
- tiredness after something
Tiredness made it hard for her to concentrate in the afternoon.
He blamed his tiredness on a late night and a long drive.
A wave of tiredness hit me as soon as I sat down.
noununcountablefigurative
A feeling of boredom or impatience with something that has gone on for too long.
Grammar: Uncountable, usually followed by with: tiredness with the same routine.
Patterns
- tiredness with something
- tiredness of something
There was a growing tiredness with the endless arguments.
Voters expressed tiredness with the same old promises.
His tiredness of city life drove him to the countryside.
Common combinations
- extreme tiredness
- Extreme tiredness is a common symptom of the illness.
- feel tiredness
- I began to feel tiredness after lunch.
- overcome by tiredness
- She was overcome by tiredness and fell asleep on the sofa.
- sign of tiredness
- Yawning is a sign of tiredness.
- relieve tiredness
- A short walk can relieve tiredness.
- constant tiredness
- Constant tiredness made it hard to work.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fatigue
- Fatigue is more formal and often medical, suggesting deeper or longer-lasting exhaustion than ordinary tiredness.
- exhaustion
- Exhaustion is much stronger and means being completely drained, while tiredness can be mild.
- weariness
- Weariness is more literary and can include emotional strain, whereas tiredness is the everyday word.
- drowsiness
- Drowsiness specifically means being sleepy and close to dozing, not just needing rest.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: tiredness or tiredness? tiredness or tiring?
tiredness vs tiredness
Do not use it for the tires of a car; that noun is tire (US) or tyre (UK) and is unrelated in meaning.
tiredness vs tiring
Tiring describes what makes you tired, while tired describes how you feel, so a tiring day leaves you tired.
Practice
Sam yawned and rubbed his eyes, clearly overcome by ___.
Choose one answer.
After overcome by, a noun is needed, and tiredness is the noun. Tired and tiring are adjectives, and tiredly is an adverb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tiredness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.