Imbecility
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The quality of being imbecile; weakness; feebleness, especially of mind. uncountable
"The police prosecutor hammered at him and the bench had a go at him, and they commanded from him such a madhouse particularity between the distinctions of looking and seeing that Bradly was reduced to imbecility, and so contradictious were his mutterings that he was openly suspected of trying to shield that wretched tramp, whom Bradly would have gladly seen sunk in the bottomless pit reserved for snoopers."
- 2 a stupid mistake wordnet
- 3 Something imbecilic; a stupid action, behaviour, etc. countable, uncountable
"The Parnassian theory of art is mere imbecility."
- 4 retardation more severe than a moron but not as severe as an idiot wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"They induce uncertainty in muscle power, confusion in mind power, and imbecility in soul power."
Etymology
From Middle English inbecillite, from Middle French imbecilité, imbecillité, and its etymon Classical Latin imbēcillitās. By surface analysis, imbecile + -ity.
More for "imbecility"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.