paralysis

Borrowed from Latin paralysis, from Ancient Greek παράλυσις (parálusis, “palsy”), from παραλύω (paralúō, “to disable on one side”). By surface analysis, para- +‎ -lysis. Doublet of palsy.

• (US) IPA^(key): /pəˈɹæləsəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

paralysis (countable and uncountable, plural paralyses)

2. (pathology) The complete loss of voluntary control of part of a person's body, such as one or more limbs.
3. A state of being unable to act.

   The government has been in a paralysis since it lost its majority in the parliament.

   • 2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 5 August 2023:

     Until then, the Sunak administration remains a study in ineffectuality on multiple fronts, leading Goldsmith to cite, not unreasonably, “a kind of paralysis”.

   • 2026 February 18, Paul Clifton, “West of England Line problems laid bare”, in RAIL, page 7:

     Will this decision-making paralysis continue until Great British Railways has been established and settled into a new rhythm? If so, passengers on the West of England line are in for a rough ride, as the reliability of these tired old British Rail trains inevitably declines, and maintenance costs rise.

• immobility
• palsy

• paralyse/paralyze
• paralytic

• -plegia: paraplegia, quadriplegia etc.
• paresis

• “paralysis”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “paralysis”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “paralysis”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek παράλυσις (parálusis, “palsy”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [paˈra.ly.sɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [paˈraː.li.s̬is]

paralysis f (genitive paralysis or paralyseōs or paralysios); third declension

1. paralysis, palsy

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem).

¹Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.

• Asturian: paralís
• Old French: parelisie
  • → English: palsy
  • → Galician: perlesía
  • → Asturian: perllesía, perlesía

• → Asturian: parálisis
• → Catalan: paràlisi
• → English: paralysis
• → Esperanto: paralizo
• → French: paralysie
  • → Portuguese: paralisia
  • → Romanian: paralizie
    • → Tetum: paralizia
• → Galician: parálise
• → German: Paralyse
• → Italian: paralisi
• → Occitan: paralisi
• → Polish: paraliż
  • → Russian: паралич (paralič)
  • → Ukrainian: параліч (paralič)
  • → Yiddish: פּאַראַליטש (paralitsh)
• → Serbo-Croatian: парали́за, paralíza
• → Slovak: paralýza, paralíza
• → Slovene: paraliza, paralíza
• → Spanish: parálisis
• → Swedish: paralys

• “paralysis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “paralysis”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.