heikentää

Heikentää is a Finnish verb meaning to weaken, reduce the strength or effectiveness of something, or to diminish its quality or impact. It is a transitive verb, used when one thing causes another to become less strong, less functional, or less influential. The sense can be literal (physical strength or material properties) or figurative (credibility, performance, or morale).

Common domains of use include everyday language, science, and public discourse. For example, one can say that high temperature weakens chemical bonds, or that a long and difficult workout weakens fatigue resistance in the short term but may improve it with recovery. In medicine or biology one might speak of a disease or a treatment that weakens the immune response or reduces the efficacy of a medication. In politics or policy, statements like “the new regulation weakens the organization’s position” are also typical, indicating diminished influence or capability.

Grammar and usage notes: heikentää is the present tense form used for third-person singular (hän heikentää) and other persons with the standard -a/-ä verb conjugation pattern in Finnish. The imperfect is heikensi, the perfect with a present relevance is heikentynyt (or the passive form heikennetään in the present). The verb stems from the adjective heikko (weak) and is commonly found in compound expressions and technical language as well as in everyday speech.

Etymology: derived from heikko, meaning weak, with the standard Finnish verb-forming suffixes to yield “to weaken.”