Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Imbecility |
ImbecilityNoun1. Retardation more severe than a moron but not as severe as an idiot. 2. A stupid mistake. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "imbecility" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | IMBECILITY, n. A kind of divine inspiration, or sacred fire affecting censorious critics of this dictionary. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: ImbecilitySynonyms: betise (n), folly (n), foolishness (n), stupidity (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Absence or want of Intellect | Noun: absence of intellect, want of intellect; imbecility; brutality, brute force. |
Absurdity | Noun: absurdity, absurdness; Adjective: imbecility; alogy, nonsense, utter nonsense; paradox, inconsistency; stultiloquy, stultiloquence; nugacity. |
Imbecility Folly | Noun: want of -intelligence; want of -intellect; shadowness, silliness, foolishness; Adjective: imbecility, incapacity, vacancy of mind, poverty of intellect, weakness of intellect, clouded perception, poor head, apartments to let; stupidity, stolidity; hebetude, dull understanding, meanest capacity, shortsightedness; incompetence; (unskillfulness). |
Impotence | Noun: impotence; inability, disability; disablement, impuissance, imbecility; incapacity, incapability; ineptitude, incompetence, unproductivity; indocility; invalidity, disqualification; inefficiency, wastefulness. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Imbecility |
| English words defined with "imbecility": Imbecilities ♦ Moria. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Gustave Flaubert | The whole dream of democracy is to elevate the proletarian to the level of the imbecility of the bourgeois. |
Hare | Artifice is weak; it is the work of mere man, in the imbecility and self distrust of his mimic understanding. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Imbecility" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Imbecility" is used about 10 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 10 | 111,207 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "imbecility"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | të qenët i metë, gomar (ass, cuddy, donkey, jackass, moke, mutton head, Neddy, owl, stupid person), budallallëk (crassitude, density, Folly, foolery, foolishness, inanition, inanity, nonsense, opaqueness, tomfoolery). (various references) | |
Arabic | حماقة تامة, حماقة (blindness, brainlessness, brutishness, crap, doltishness, dumbness, emptiness, fatuity, fatuousness, fat-wittedness, feeblemindedness, folly, foolery, gaffe, hankey-pankey, hanky panky, idiocy, insanity, nonsense, rot, silliness, stupidity, thick-wittedness, tomfoolery, unwisdom, weak-mindedness), بلاهة (brainlessness, density, dullness, idiocy, retardation, rot, silliness, stupidity). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | слабоумие, малоумие (dementia), имбециалност. (various references) | |
Czech | slabomyslnost. (various references) | |
Danish | imbecilitet, oligofreni (amentia, feeblemindedness, mental deficiency, mental retardation, oligophrenia), åndssvaghed. (various references) | |
Dutch | imbeciliteit, zwakzinnigheid (amentia, dementia, feeblemindedness, mental deficiency, mental disorder, mental retardation, oligophrenia), geesteszwakte (deficient judgement, dementia, feeblemindedness, mental disorder), achterlijkheid (backwardness). (various references) | |
Finnish | vähämielisyys. (various references) | |
French | imbécillité. (various references) | |
German | schwachsinn (dementia, feeblemindedness, feeble-mindedness, idiocy, mental deficiency, mentally deficiency, moronism). (various references) | |
Greek | βλακεία (fatuity, foolishness, goofiness, idiocy, muff, nonsense, sheepishness, silliness, stupidity, stupidness, tomfoolery), ηλιθιότησ (cretinism, gawkiness, idiocy, stupidity, stupidness, tomfoolery), ηλιθιότητα (cretinism, fatuousness, gawkiness, idiocy, oafishness, stupidity, stupidness, tomfoolery), ηλιθιότης, ευήθεια. (various references) | |
Hungarian | ostoba volta vminek, ostoba cselekedet (fooling about), oktalan volta vminek, marhaság (bunk, crap, poppycock, rot, tosh), hülyeség (bosh, crap, idiocy, nonsense, rot, stupidity), gyengeelméjûség, gyengeelméjűség. (various references) | |
Indonesian | kedunguan (stupidity), kebebalan. (various references) | |
Italian | imbecillità. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 虚弱 (feebleness, weakness), 闇愚 (dark, feeblemindedness), 魯鈍 (stupidity), 羸弱 (feebleness, weakness), 痴愚 (idiocy), 庸愚 (mediocrity), 暗愚 (dark, feeblemindedness), 低能 (feeble-mindedness, low intelligence), 不能 (impossibility, incompetency, inefficiency, weak point). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | きょじゃく (feebleness, weakness), ふのう (default, impossibility, incompetency, inefficiency, non-payment, rich farmer, weak point), ろどん (stupidity), あんぐ (dark, feeblemindedness), るいじゃく (feebleness, weakness), ようぐ (implements, mediocrity, necessary tools, tools), ていのう (feeble-mindedness, low intelligence), ちぐ (idiocy). (various references) | |
Manx | meecheeayllid (absurdity, absurdness, idiocy, madness, silliness, simpleness), jei-hushtaght, annooinid aigney, anlheiltys (disablement, incapacity), anlheil. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | imbecilityay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | imbecilidade (fatuity, idiocy, stupidity, weakness). (various references) | |
Romanian | imbecilitate (idiocy, silliness, stupidity), tâmpenie (idiocy, madness, stupidity), cretinism (cretinism). (various references) | |
Russian | глупость (asininity, crassitude, craziness, density, fatuity, fatuousness, folly, foolery, foolishness, inanity, long ears, piffle, silliness, stupidity, unreason, unwisdom, witlessness), неспособность (disability, inability, inaptitude, incapability, incapacity, incompetence, inefficiency), имбециальность. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | imbecilnost. (various references) | |
Spanish | imbecilidad (idiocy, monkeyshine). (various references) | |
Swedish | imbecillitet, idioti (apple sauce, idiocy), dumhet (density, fatuity, folly, inanity, opaqueness, stupidity), dåraktighet (Folly, foolishness, madness). (various references) | |
Thai | ความโง่ (muddle-headedness, obtuseness). (various references) | |
Turkish | geri zekâlılık (idiocy, mental deficiency), embesillik, ahmaklık (crassness, density, fooling, foolishness, footle, idiocy, inanity, stupidity). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | імбецильність, тупоумство (density, hebetude), нездатність (inability, incapability, incapacity, inefficiency, non-ability, unfitness), недоумкуватість, дурість (asininity, fatuity, foolishness, idiocy, obtuseness, obtusity, opaqueness, sheepishness, silliness, stupidity). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tính ngu đần hành động khờ dại, tính khờ dại (silliness). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Words rhyming with "imbecility" (pronounced 'Im`be*cil"i*ty'): Ability, Abnormality, Abnormity, Aboriginality, Absorbability, Absorptivity, Abstrusity, Absurdity, Accendibility, Accentuality, Acceptability, Accessibility, Accidentality, Acclivity, Accomplicity, Accountability, Acerbity, Acetosity, Achromaticity, Acidity, Acquirability, Acrity, Activity, Actuality, Actuosity, Acuity, Addibility, Admirability, Admiralty, Admissibility, Adorability, Aduncity, Adverbiality, Adversity, Advisability, Aeriality, Affability, Affectibility, Agaty, Agility, Agreeability, Alacrity, Alamodality, Aldermanity, Algidity, Alibility, Alienability, Alkalinity, Allotropicity, Alterability. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-c-e-i-i-i-l-m-t-y" | |
-4 letters: beylic, blimey, elicit, limbic, timely. | |
-5 letters: blimy, blite, climb, clime, icily, licit, limbi, limby, limey, limit, lytic, melic, milty, telic. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-c-e-i-i-i-l-m-t-y" | |
+3 letters: impeccability. | |
+4 letters: machineability. | |
+5 letters: compressibility, contemptibility. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Familiar 6. Usage Frequency 7. Translations: Modern 8. Rhymes | 9. Anagrams 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
