Paralysis is the loss of the ability to move part or all of your body. When someone experiences paralysis, their muscles stop responding to signals from their brain, even though they're trying to move. A person might have paralysis in their legs after a spinal injury, meaning their brain sends the message to walk but their legs can't receive it.

Paralysis can affect different parts of the body in different ways. Partial paralysis means some movement remains, while complete paralysis means no movement at all. Some paralysis is temporary, like when your leg falls asleep from sitting in one position too long and feels numb and hard to move for a few minutes. But other paralysis is permanent, and some people use wheelchairs, crutches, or other adaptive equipment to get around.

The word also describes being unable to act because of fear, shock, or overwhelming emotion. A student might feel paralyzed by anxiety before a big presentation, frozen in place even though nothing is physically wrong. A team might suffer analysis paralysis when they overthink a decision so much that they can't choose any option at all. In these cases, paralysis describes that stuck feeling where you know you should do something but can't move forward.