dumb
adjective · verb
Simple meaning
Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
duhmIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdʌm
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
figuratively
Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.
Lacking some functionality or property ordinarily characteristic of its kind.
of technology
Not equipped with intelligent behavior or processing capabilities of its own.
verb
transitive
To make stupid.
transitive
To represent as stupid.
transitive
To reduce the intellectual demands of.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Lacking some functionality or property ordinarily characteristic of its kind.
Used this way, dumb is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It carries warmth, so it reads as personal rather than detached.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Kind and considerate
- Usage feel
- Warm and expressive
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use dumb
- “His younger brother was born dumb, and communicated with sign language.”adjective
- “You are so dumb! You don't even know how to make toast!”adjective
- “Brendan had the dumb job of moving boxes from one conveyor belt to another.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A bomb that falls because of gravity and is not guided to a target.
An evergreen plant with large showy dark green leaves.
A performance using gestures and body movements without words.
Render speechless, as by surprising or shocking.
A deaf person who is unable to speak.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to make stupid
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.