taedium vitae

/ˌtiːdiəm ˈviːtʌɪ/

noun

Profound ennui or weariness of one's life.

OriginLatin taedium →
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Meanings

nountaedium vitae (uncountable)

alternative archaic tædium vitæ

  1. uncountableProfound ennui or weariness of one's life.

    He was haunted, it seems, by the symbol of a Prometheus wearied of his immortality of anguish,— by the tedium vitae.

    1922, Isaac Goldberg, Brazilian Literature, New York: A.A. Knopf, page 154
    2 more examples

    Hence it proceeds many times that they are weary of their lives, and feral thoughts to offer violence to their own persons come into their minds; tædium vitæ is a common symptom […]

    1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, page 390

    From time to time one of Georges' numerous girls strays into my net by calling at the flat when he is not there, and the incident serves for a while to sharpen my taedium vitae.

    1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine

Origin

  1. Latintaedium“boredom”
  2. Englishtaedium vitae

Borrowed from Latin taedium (“boredom”) + vītae (“of life”).

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

taedium vitae. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/taedium%20vitae

MLA

“taedium vitae.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/taedium%20vitae. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “taedium vitae,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/taedium%20vitae.

Source: taedium vitae on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.