Low energy has many shades. Someone may be unwilling to work, too tired to try, slow and dreamy on a hot day, half asleep, or fast asleep. Writers use these words to set a mood (a languid summer afternoon) or to judge a person (an indolent worker).
Key idea
Won’t make an effort: indolent. Low on energy: lethargic, languid, listless, torpid, and the feeling lassitude. Sleepy and asleep: somnolent (drowsy), soporific (causing sleep), dormant (sleeping for now), stupor (a dazed state).
Several come from Latin words for sleep: somn (somnolent, insomnia), sopor (soporific) and dorm (dormant, dormitory).
The ten words
Common mistake
soporific describes what causes sleep (a soporific lecture); somnolent describes the sleepy person. A dormant volcano can wake up again.
| word | describes | example |
|---|---|---|
| indolent | a person who won’t make an effort | an indolent worker |
| lethargic, listless, torpid | a person or animal low on energy | a listless team |
| languid | a slow, relaxed (often graceful) way | a languid afternoon |
| somnolent | a sleepy person or place | a somnolent audience |
| soporific | a thing that causes sleep | a soporific speech |
| dormant | something asleep for now | a dormant volcano |
| lassitude, stupor | the feeling: weariness; a daze | a deep lassitude |
Common mistake
soporific describes what causes sleep (a soporific lecture). somnolent describes the one who is sleepy (a somnolent student). A boring speech is soporific; the people listening become somnolent.