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Achilles heel

or Achilles' heel

noun

a portion, spot, area, or the like, that is especially or solely vulnerable:
His Achilles heel is his quick temper.

Achilles heel

noun

a small but fatal weakness

Achilles' heel

A point of vulnerability. ( See Achilles .)

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Word History and Origins

Origin of Achilles heel¹

First recorded in 1800–10

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Idioms and Phrases

A fatal weakness, a vulnerable area, as in This division, which is rarely profitable, is the company's Achilles' heel . The term alludes to the Greek legend about the heroic warrior Achilles whose mother tried to make him immortal by holding the infant by his heel and dipping him into the River Styx. Eventually he was killed by an arrow shot into his undipped heel. [c. 1800]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

This approach used by officers has been dubbed as "Achilles' heel" tactics, Det Ch Supt Angela Craggs said, as it involved considering allegations related to other crimes.

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The Achilles’ heel of large democracies—their very diversity, if channeled into blind factionalism—could become the instrument of their undoing.

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Human nature, in the end, is our Achilles heel.

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Then there is Scheffler's work on the greens, which was his perceived Achilles heel until he successfully switched to a mallet style putter under the tutelage of British coach Phil Kenyon in the early part of the season.

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Gonzalez focused his campaign on the Achilles’ heel of California Democrats: the state’s high cost of living.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Achilles Achilles jerk

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