What does imbecile mean?

Definitions for imbecile
ˈɪm bə sɪl, -səl; esp. Brit. -ˌsilim·be·cile

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word imbecile.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. idiot, imbecile, cretin, moron, changeling, half-wit, retardadjective

    a person of subnormal intelligence

  2. imbecile, imbecilic, idioticadjective

    having a mental age of three to seven years

GCIDE

  1. Imbecilenoun

    (Psychology) A person with a degree of mental retardation between that of an idiot and a moron; in a former classification of mentally retarded person, it applied to a person with an adult mental age of from four to eith years, and an I.Q. of from 26 to 50.

Wiktionary

  1. imbecilenoun

    A person with limited mental capacity who can perform tasks and think only like a young child, in medical circles meaning a person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal five to seven-year-old child.

  2. imbecilenoun

    A fool, an idiot.

  3. Etymology: From imbecillus, literally “without a staff”.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Imbecileadjective

    Weak; feeble; wanting strength of either mind or body.

    Etymology: imbecilis, Latin; imbecille, French.

  2. To Imbecileverb

    To weaken a stock or fortune by clandestine expences or unjust appropriations.

    Etymology: from the adjective.

    Princes must in a special manner be guardians of pupils and widows, not suffering their persons to be oppressed, or their states imbeciled. Jeremy Taylor, Rule of living holy.

Wikipedia

  1. Imbecile

    The term imbecile was once used by psychiatrists to denote a category of people with moderate to severe intellectual disability, as well as a type of criminal. The word arises from the Latin word imbecillus, meaning weak, or weak-minded. It originally referred to people of the second order in a former and discarded classification of intellectual disability, with a mental age of three to seven years and an IQ of 25–50, above "idiot" (IQ below 25) and below "moron" (IQ of 51–70). In the obsolete medical classification (ICD-9, 1977), these people were said to have "moderate mental retardation" or "moderate mental subnormality" with IQ of 35–49, as they are usually capable of some degree of communication, guarding themselves against danger and performing simple mechanical tasks under supervision.The meaning was further refined into mental and moral imbecility. The concepts of "moral insanity", "moral idiocy"," and "moral imbecility" led to the emerging field of eugenic criminology, which held that crime can be reduced by preventing "feeble-minded" people from reproducing."Imbecile" as a concrete classification was popularized by psychologist Henry H. Goddard and was used in 1927 by United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in his ruling in the forced-sterilization case Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927).The concept is closely associated with psychology, psychiatry, criminology, and eugenics. However, the term imbecile quickly passed into vernacular usage as a derogatory term. It fell out of professional use in the 20th century in favor of mental retardation.Phrases such as "mental retardation", "mentally retarded", and "retarded" are also subject to the euphemism treadmill: initially used in a medical manner, they gradually took on derogatory connotation. This had occurred with the earlier synonyms (for example, moron, imbecile, cretin, and idiot, formerly used as scientific terms in the early 20th century). Professionals searched for connotatively neutral replacements. In the United States, "Rosa's Law" changed references in many federal statutes to "mental retardation" to refer instead to "intellectual disability".

ChatGPT

  1. imbecile

    An imbecile is a term used to describe a person of very low intelligence, or someone who behaves in a foolish or absurd manner. It is often used as an insult to criticize someone's decision-making abilities or common sense. The term was originally used in the psychological field as a classification for individuals with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities, but it's now considered outdated and offensive in such context.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Imbecileadjective

    destitute of strength, whether of body or mind; feeble; impotent; esp., mentally wea; feeble-minded; as, hospitals for the imbecile and insane

  2. Imbecilenoun

    one destitute of strength; esp., one of feeble mind

  3. Imbecileverb

    to weaken; to make imbecile; as, to imbecile men's courage

Wikidata

  1. Imbecile

    Imbecile was a medical category of people with moderate to severe mental retardation, as well as a type of criminal. The term arises from the Latin word imbecillus, meaning weak, or weak-minded. It included people with an IQ of 26–50, between "moron" and "idiot". The meaning was further refined into mental and moral imbecility. The concepts of "moral insanity", "moral idiocy"," and "moral imbecility", led to the emerging field of eugenic criminology, which held that crime can be reduced by preventing "feeble-minded" people from reproducing. "Imbecile" as a concrete classification was popularized by psychologist Henry H. Goddard and was used in 1927 by United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in his ruling in the forced-sterilization case Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200. The concept is closely associated with psychology, psychiatry, criminology, and eugenics. However, the term imbecile quickly passed into vernacular usage as a derogatory term, and fell out of professional use in the 20th century in favor of mental retardation. In recent decades, the phrases "mental retardation", "mentally retarded", and "retarded" have similarly come to be viewed as derogatory terms and their usage now is considered to be politically incorrect much like the words moron, imbecile, and idiot, formerly used as scientific terms in the early 20th century, also came to be viewed as derogatory. On October 5, 2010, President Barack Obama signed Senate Bill 2781, known as "Rosa's Law", which changed references in many Federal statutes that referred to "mental retardation" to refer instead to "intellectual disability".

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Imbecile

    im′be-sēl, adj. without strength either of body or mind: feeble: fatuous.—n. one destitute of strength, either of mind or body.—n. Imbecil′ity, state of being imbecile: weakness of body or mind. [O. Fr. imbecile—L. imbecillis; origin unknown.]

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of imbecile in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of imbecile in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of imbecile in a Sentence

  1. Clay Travis:

    Even people who are defending Colin Kaepernick are looking around like' man, you are an imbecile and anyone at this point, who defended Colin Kaepernick has to feel like they were used.

  2. Albert Schweitzer:

    Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.

  3. Henry Louis Mencken:

    Life without sex might be safer but it would be unbearably dull. It is the sex instinct which makes women seem beautiful, which they are once in a blue moon, and men seem wise and brave, which they never are at all. Throttle it, denaturalize it, take it away, and human existence would be reduced to the prosiac, laborious, boresome, imbecile level of life in an anthill.

  4. Ibn-e-Safi:

    Why is it that an ordinary clerk has to pass the examination for clerkship, a police constable has to go through training as a recruit before he could be commissioned and on the other hand vegetable-selling middlemen, good-for-nothing fuedals and imbecile merchants go sit in the Assemblies directly and start legisltating and some even become members of the cabinet

  5. The Donald:

    On this one I think Rosie should win, but Rosie is not much herself. I think anybody that's against the war in Iraq is the winner of the fight, because to justify the war in Iraq -- only an imbecile could do that.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

imbecile#10000#98357#100000

Translations for imbecile

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"imbecile." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/imbecile>.

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