Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Loss or lack of bodily strength; weakness; debility.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In pathology, debility; want of strength. Also astheny.
  • noun [capitalized] In zoology, a genus of insects.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) Want or loss of strength; debility; diminution of the vital forces.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine weakness; loss of strength

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an abnormal loss of strength

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin, from Greek astheneia, from asthenēs, weak : a-, without; see a– + sthenos, strength; see segh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἀσθένεια (asthénia), from ἀσθενής (asthenḗs, "sick, weak"), from ἀ- (a, "not, un-") + σθένος (thénos, "strength").

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Examples

  • GUILLAIN-BARRE syndrome, asthenia, headache, sleepiness and pericardial effusion were reported as other important medical event.

    Shelley Ross: What the Tea Party -- and Everyone Else -- Missed on Gardasil® Shelley Ross 2011

  • One day post vaccination the patient developed asthenia, headache and sleepiness which improved the following day.

    Shelley Ross: What the Tea Party -- and Everyone Else -- Missed on Gardasil® Shelley Ross 2011

  • He died at the age of thirty-two from “asthenia from pneumonia,” probably as a secondary result of sickle cell disease.

    The Edge of Evolution Michael J. Behe 2007

  • He died at the age of thirty-two from “asthenia from pneumonia,” probably as a secondary result of sickle cell disease.

    The Edge of Evolution Michael J. Behe 2007

  • He died at the age of thirty-two from “asthenia from pneumonia,” probably as a secondary result of sickle cell disease.

    The Edge of Evolution Michael J. Behe 2007

  • He died at the age of thirty-two from “asthenia from pneumonia,” probably as a secondary result of sickle cell disease.

    The Edge of Evolution Michael J. Behe 2007

  • You -- you kind of worry that some measure of diffidence, or lack of interest, sets in, you know, kind of political asthenia.

    CNN Transcript Mar 15, 2007 2007

  • Evaluation of the efficacy of a standardized ginseng extract in patients with psychophysical asthenia and neurological disorders.

    The Best Alternative Medicine Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier 2000

  • Evaluation of the efficacy of a standardized ginseng extract in patients with psychophysical asthenia and neurological disorders.

    The Best Alternative Medicine Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier 2000

  • The patient died four years after manifesting symptoms of a general asthenia.

    The Mad Among Us Gerald N. Grob 1994

Comments

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  • "'Strychnin sic in large doses hypodermically had a distinct value in the existing asthenia....'"

    —John M. Barry, The Great Influenza (NY: Penguin Books, 2004), 358

    February 17, 2009