Find your perfect word!

Definition dumb

Etymology 1

From Middle English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, ineffectual”), from Old English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, unable to speak”), from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dull, dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?ewb?- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). 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”), Swedish dum (“stupid”), Icelandic dumbur (“dumb, mute”). See also deaf.

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.

Adjective

dumb (comparative dumber, superlative dumbest)

1. (dated) Unable to speak; lacking power of speech (kept in "deaf, dumb, and blind").
2. (dated) Silent; unaccompanied by words.
3. (informal, derogatory, especially of a person) extremely stupid.
4. (figuratively) Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.
5. Lacking brightness or clearness, as a colour.

Etymology 2

From Middle English dumben, from Old English dumbian (more commonly in compound ?dumbian (“to become mute or dumb; keep silence; hold one’s peace”)), from Proto-Germanic *dumbijan?, *dumb?n? (“to be silent, become dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?ewb?- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). Cognate with German verdummen (“to become dumb”).

Verb

dumb (third-person singular simple present dumbs, present participle dumbing, simple past and past participle dumbed)

1. (dated) To silence.
2. (transitive) To make stupid.
3. (transitive) To represent as stupid.
4. (transitive) To reduce the intellectual demands of.

Results 269 Words with the letters DUMB

You can also try words with the phrase DUMB, words starting with the letters DUMB, or words ending in the letters DUMB.

Favorites Searches

Words… ending with q, starting with q, starting with qa, starting with qo, with two letters, starting with x, starting with j, ending with j,

Some random searches: Words with the letters DXZNU, Words with the letters NBGBFO, Words with the letters YCCUT, Words with the letters YVI,