Link Centre Dictionary

dumb

UK/dʌm/ US/ɖəm(b)/ common informal

adjective

1.

slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity

  • “so dense he never understands anything I say to him”
  • “never met anyone quite so dim”
  • “although dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick” Thackeray
  • “dumb officials make some really dumb decisions”
  • “he was either normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse”
  • “worked with the slow students”
Synonyms
Similar
2.

unable to speak temporarily

  • “struck dumb”
  • “speechless with shock”
Synonyms
Similar
3.

lacking the power of human speech

  • “dumb animals”
Similar
4.

unable to speak because of hereditary deafness

Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From Middle English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, ineffectual”), from Old English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, unable to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *dumb, from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dull, dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). The senses of stupid, unintellectual, and pointless, which are found regularly since the 19th century only, probably developed under the influence of German dumm and Dutch dom. Just like the English word, these originally meant "lacking the power of speech", but they developed the mentioned senses early on. Cognates Cognate with Scots dumb (“dumb, silent”), North Frisian dom, domme (“dumb, stupid”), West Frisian dom (“dumb, stupid”), Dutch dom (“dumb, stupid”), German dumm (“dumb, stupid”), Danish dum (“stupid”), Swedish dum (“stupid”), Icelandic dumbur (“dumb, mute”). See also deaf.

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.