imbecility
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˌɪm.bɪˈsɪl.ɪ.ti/
- Slur
:
imbecilidad
- His repeated failures in understanding the simplest concepts highlighted his imbecility compared to his peers.
Examples
-
The ineffable imbecility of your expression and the consummate cretinousness of your smile kept me from entertaining even the slightest doubts about the nature of your aforementioned dream.
Academic text (2007) -
Ignoring it is the height of imbecility.
Blog text (20) -
We have truly educated ourselves into imbecility!
Blog text (29) -
The imbecility of our government even forbids them to treat with us.
Academic text (1993) -
That is not a reason; it is mere waywardness and imbecility.
Fiction book (1999) -
I mean, seriously, I normally try extra hard to be polite, even when confronted with utter imbecility.
Blog text (4) -
Liberals are the epitome of what Malcolm Muggeridge described: "We have educated ourselves into imbecility."
Blog text (29) -
When Gary Trudeau devoted a Sunday color Doonesbury to the inanity and imbecility of academic speech codes, I thought to myself, I have died and gone to heaven.
Academic text (1997) -
"It is better for all the world "if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offsprings for crime "or to let them starve for their imbecility, "society can prevent their propagation "by medical means in the first place.
-
His madness was headed right to the same crass idiocy, the same imbecility of a person who spent all of his mornings on the patio of the asylum with his face painted white.
Fiction book (1994)
Synonyms
115
2.5
Not being smart or having good judgment
40
8.0
Very stupid or foolish behaviour often seen as offensive
1
6.2
A state of not understanding things quickly
A condition of low ability to learn and think that starts in childhood
Low mental ability to think clearly or learn
A quality of being slow to understand and making simple mistakes
A lack of cleverness or quick thinking
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word imbecility comes from the Latin word imbecillus, which meant 'weak' and literally 'without a staff', from in- 'not' and baculum 'staff'. That's why imbecility was once used as a medical term for low mental ability, but it is now offensive and not used in medicine.