dumb
/dʌm/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.54 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Lacking some functionality or property ordinarily characteristic of its kind.
Example Sentences
- "deaf, dumb, and blind"
- "His younger brother was born dumb, and communicated with sign language."
- "to unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures"
- "The country people frequently ſay,—How can you treat a poor dumb beaſt ill; and a ſtreſs is very properly laid on the word dumb; for dumb they appear to thoſe who do not obſerve their looks and geſtures; but God, who takes care of every thing, underſtands their language..."
- "We are dumb and we would talk"
- "It is true, there is Turkish of which I had picked up a few phrases, and there is Chinese of which I did not understand a single word. But I had no fear of remaining dumb in Turkestan and the Celestial Empire."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
dumber (comparative)
dumbest (superlative)
dumbs (present, singular)
dumbing (participle, present)
dumbed (participle, past)
dumbed (past)
more dumb (comparative)
most dumb (superlative)
DUMBs (plural)