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Lethargy vs Listless - What's the difference?

lethargy | listless |

As a noun lethargy

is (pathology) a condition characterized by extreme fatigue or drowsiness, or prolonged sleep patterns.

As an adjective listless is

lacking energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness.

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.

    Related terms

    * encephalitis lethargica (EL) * lethargic * Lethe

    listless

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Lacking energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness.
  • * 1818 , , Frankenstein , ch. 18:
    • I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little boat, watching the clouds and listening to the rippling of the waves, silent and listless .
  • * 1861 , , The Stokesley Secret , ch. 6:
    • What an entirely different set of beings were those Stokesley children in lesson-time. . . . Poor, listless , stolid, deplorable logs, with bowed backs and crossed ankles, pipy voices and heavy eyes!
  • * 1901 , , The Hero , ch. 21:
    • The scene with Mrs. Wallace had broken his spirit, and he was listless now, indifferent to what happened.
  • * 2005 Nov. 29, Aryn Baker, " John Hardy: Bali Guy," Time :
    • “Listless , inattentive, distracted,” he recited. “A daydreamer. Tries his best, but is too slow.”

    Derived terms

    * listlessly * listlessness

    Anagrams

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