- dumb
- I(Roget's IV) modif.1. [Unable to speak]Syn. silent, mute, voiceless, speechless, inarticulate, wordless, quiet, mum, aphonic, deaf and dumb*; see also mute 1 , quiet 2 .2. [Temporarily speechless]Syn. speechless, tongue-tied, dumbstruck, wordless, at a loss for words; see also surprised .3. [*Stupid]Syn.- dumb implies a lack of the power of speech and is now more often applied to brute animals and inanimate objects than to persons with impaired speech organs [ a dumb beast ] ; voiceless is applied to one who has no voice, either from birth or through deprivation [ the throat operation left him voiceless] ; speechless usually implies temporary or momentary deprivation of the ability to speak [speechless with horror ] ; mute is applied to persons incapable of speech because of congenital deafness and not through absence or impairment of the speech organsII(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) a.1. stupid unintelligent, slow, *thick, dense, bovine, moronic, retarded, obtuse, doltish, dim-witted, *dumb as a post, ignorant, uneducated, unenlightened, dull, *having the IQ of a woodchuck, *having the IQ of a pork rind, brainless, cretinoid, *dead from the neck up, *down a quart, *half-baked, *pea-brained, *three bricks shy of a load, illiterate, vacuous, *not exactly a Rhodes scholar, *not exactly Einstein.2. unable to speak mute, speechless, still, mum, silent, voiceless, tongue-tied.ANT.: 1. smart, intelligent, bright, brilliant. 2. loquacious, verbose, *motor-mouthed, talkativeIII(Roget's Thesaurus II) adjective 1. Lacking the power or faculty of speech: aphonic, inarticulate, mute, speechless, voiceless. See WORDS. 2. Temporarily unable or unwilling to speak, as from shock or fear: inarticulate, mum, mute, silent, speechless, voiceless, wordless. See WORDS. 3. Lacking in intelligence: blockheaded, dense, doltish, heb-etudinous, obtuse, stupid, thickheaded, thick-witted. Informal: thick. Slang: dimwitted, dopey. See ABILITY.
English dictionary for students. 2013.
