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Lethargy vs Listlessness - What's the difference?

lethargy | listlessness |

As nouns the difference between lethargy and listlessness

is that lethargy is a condition characterized by extreme fatigue or drowsiness, or prolonged sleep patterns while listlessness is the state of being listless; indifference; lethargy.

lethargy

English

Noun

  • (pathology) A condition characterized by extreme fatigue or drowsiness, or prolonged sleep patterns.
  • * c. 1599 , (William Shakespeare), King Henry IV, Part 2 :
  • This Apoplexie is (as I take it) a kind of Lethargie , a sleeping of the blood, a horson Tingling.
  • * 2003 , Amanda Ripley, "At Last, the Pill for Men", Time , 20 Oct 2003:
  • So in order to avoid unpleasant side effects like lethargy and sexual dysfunction, most recent trials also gave men testosterone supplements.
  • A state of extreme torpor or apathy, especially with lack of emotion or interest; loosely, sluggishness, laziness.
  • * Atterbury
  • Europe lay then under a deep lethargy .
  • * 1995 , Bruce W Nelan, "Crime and Punishment", Time , 20 Mar 1995:
  • Yakovlev, one of the architects of the reforms put in place by Mikhail Gorbachev, says he too is "amazed" at the government's lethargy .
  • * 2008 , Nick Fletcher, The Guardian , 9 May 2008:
  • The increase in mining stocks helped the FTSE 100 shake off some earlier lethargy and close 9.8 points higher at 6270.8, despite the disappointment of unchanged UK interest rates.

    listlessness

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • The state of being listless; indifference; lethargy.
  • {{quote-Fanny Hill, part=3 , But every thing must have an end. A motion made by this angelic youth, in the listlessness of going off sleep, replac'd his shirt and the bed-cloaths in a posture that shut up that treasure from longer view.}}