paralysis

Definition

The complete loss of voluntary control of part of a person's body, such as one or more limbs.

Etymology

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.

Example Sentences

• "The government has been in a paralysis since it lost its majority in the parliament."
• "Until then, the Sunak administration remains a study in ineffectuality on multiple fronts, leading Goldsmith to cite, not unreasonably, “a kind of paralysis”."