tedium

English

Alternative forms

• taedium (Commonwealth)
• tædium (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin taedium, from taedēre (“to weary”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtiː.di.əm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːdiəm

Noun

tedium (usually uncountable, plural tediums or tedia)

1. Boredom or tediousness; ennui.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter VIII, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     Yet active life was the genuine soil for his virtues; and he sometimes suffered tedium from the monotonous succession of events in our retirement.

   • 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 192:

     Nothing actual ever suits pure expectation and such purity of expectation is a great source of tedium.

Synonyms

• boredom, drudgery, ennui, tediousness

Related terms

• taedium vitae
• tedious

Translations

boredom or tediousness; ennui

Bulgarian: скука (bg) f (skuka), досада (bg) f (dosada) Czech: znuděnost f Dutch: verveling (nl) f Finnish: ikävystyttävyys (fi), tylsyys (fi) French: ennui (fr) m, fatigue (fr) f Galician: fastío m, tedio m German: Langeweile (de) f Greek: ανία (el) f (anía) Ancient: ἀνία f (anía) Ido: tedo (io) Irish: leadrán m Latin: taedium n Latvian: garlaicība f, garlaiks m Maori: takeotanga Plautdietsch: Lankwiel m Polish: nuda (pl) f Portuguese: tédio (pt) m, aborrecimento (pt) m, fastio (pt) m, enfado (pt) m Romanian: plictiseală (ro) f, urât (ro) n, anosteală (ro) f Russian: ску́ка (ru) f (skúka) Spanish: tedio (es) m Turkish: bezginlik (tr), usanç (tr), usantı (tr)