Phlegmatic
//flɛɡˈmætɪk// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 One who has a phlegmatic disposition.
Adjective
- 1 Not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish.
"Calm and phlegmatic, with a clear eye, Mr. Fogg seemed a perfect type of that English composure which Angelica Kauffmann has so skilfully represented on canvas."
- 2 Generating, causing, or full of phlegm.
"cold and phlegmatic bodies"
Adjective
- 1 showing little emotion wordnet
Example
More examples"I couldn't read his phlegmatic expression."
Etymology
From Middle English fleumatik, flewmatik, flematik, fleumatyke, flewmatyk, from Old French fleumatique, from Latin phlegmaticus, from Ancient Greek φλεγματικός (phlegmatikós), from φλέγμα (phlégma). Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots, with modern pronunciation following this new spelling.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.