exhaustion

UK/ɪɡˈzɔːs.t͡ʃən/US/ɪɡˈzɔːs.t͡ʃən/

nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,607 of 15,258neutral

Exhaustion is the state of being completely worn out. Collapse from exhaustion, sheer exhaustion, nervous exhaustion.

It is a step beyond tiredness: sleep fixes tiredness and exhaustion needs days. Heat exhaustion is a specific medical state that comes before heatstroke, and treating it early — shade, fluid, cooling — is what stops it becoming the dangerous one.

Definitions of exhaustion

1nounexhaustionThe state of being completely worn out.B2
“After running the marathon, she collapsed from exhaustion at the finish line.”

exhaustion is a state.

Where it comes from

Latin exhaurire means to draw out entirely — ex, out, plus haurire, to draw water.

Medieval Latin
exhaustiō
English, today
exhaustion

Borrowed from Medieval Latin exhaustiō, from la + exhauriō. Borrowed from Medieval Latin exhaustiō, from exhauriō. Surface analysis: exhaust + -ion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

exhaustion in the wild

In theory, the proof by exhaustion method can be used whenever the number of cases is finite.
Proof by exhaustion
Children, older adults, and individuals with certain pre-existing health conditions are more susceptible to heat exhaustion due to their reduced ability to regulate core body temperature.
Heat exhaustion
Public health measures, such as heat warnings and community cooling centers, also help prevent heat exhaustion during extreme weather events.
Heat exhaustion
The method of exhaustion typically required a form of proof by contradiction, known as reductio ad absurdum.
Method of exhaustion
The top-level exhaustion occurred on 31 January 2011.
IPv4 address exhaustion

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

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