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An audience is never wrong. An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark - that is critical genius.
Billy Wilder

Meaning of "imbecile" in the English dictionary

Dictionary
DICTIONARY
section

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD IMBECILE

From Latin imbēcillus feeble (physically or mentally).
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Etymology is the study of the origin of words and their changes in structure and significance.
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PRONUNCIATION OF IMBECILE

imbecile  [ˈɪmbɪˌsiːl] play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF IMBECILE

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Imbecile can act as a noun and an adjective.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

The adjective is the word that accompanies the noun to determine or qualify it.

WHAT DOES IMBECILE MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Imbecile

Imbecile was a medical category of people with moderate to severe intellectual disability, 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 21–50, 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.

Definition of imbecile in the English dictionary

The first definition of imbecile in the dictionary is a person of very low intelligence, usually capable only of guarding himself against danger and of performing simple mechanical tasks under supervision. Other definition of imbecile is an extremely stupid person; dolt. Imbecile is also of or like an imbecile; mentally deficient; feeble-minded.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH IMBECILE


blastocoel
ˈblæstəʊˌsiːl
blastocoele
ˈblæstəʊˌsiːl
cephalocele
ˈsefələˌsiːl
counterseal
ˈkaʊntəˌsiːl
cystocele
ˈsɪstəˌsiːl
encephalocele
ɛnˈsɛfələʊˌsiːl
enterocele
ˈɛntərəʊˌsiːl
haemocoel
ˈhiːməˌsiːl
hematocele
ˈhɛmətəʊˌsiːl
hemocoel
ˈhiːməˌsiːl
hydrocele
ˈhaɪdrəʊˌsiːl
meningocele
mɛˈnɪŋɡəʊˌsiːl
neurocoele
ˈnjʊərəˌsiːl
rectocele
ˈrɛktəʊˌsiːl
rhabdocoele
ˈræbdəˌsiːl
spermatocele
ˈspɜːmətəʊˌsiːl
steatocele
stɪˈætəʊˌsiːl
tarseal
ˈtɑːˌsiːl
underseal
ˈʌndəˌsiːl
varicocele
ˈværɪkəʊˌsiːl

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE IMBECILE

imbalance
imbalanced
imbecilely
imbecilic
imbecilically
imbecility
imbed
imbedded
imbedding
imbibe
imbiber
imbibition
imbizo
Imbolc
Imbolg
imbricate
imbricated
imbricately
imbrication
imbroglio

WORDS THAT END LIKE IMBECILE

ancile
C.difficile
Clostridium difficile
decile
difficile
docile
domicile
facile
gracile
indocile
overfacile
reconcile
undocile

Synonyms and antonyms of imbecile in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

SYNONYMS OF «IMBECILE»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «imbecile» and belong to the same grammatical category.
synonyms of imbecile

Translation of «imbecile» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF IMBECILE

Find out the translation of imbecile to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of imbecile from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «imbecile» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

低能儿
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

imbécil
570 millions of speakers

English

imbecile
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

मूर्ख
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

أبله
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

слабоумный
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

imbecil
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

নির্বোধ
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

imbécile
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Kurang ajar
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

Idiot
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

愚かな
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

바보
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Imbecile
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

ngu
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

மனோதிடம்
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

असभ्य
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

embesil
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

imbecille
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

niedorozwinięty
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

недоумкуватий
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

imbecil
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

imbecile
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

swaksinnige
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

imbecill
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

imbecile
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of imbecile

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «IMBECILE»

The term «imbecile» is regularly used and occupies the 89.724 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Regularly used
58
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «imbecile» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of imbecile
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «imbecile».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «IMBECILE» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «imbecile» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «imbecile» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about imbecile

EXAMPLES

5 QUOTES WITH «IMBECILE»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word imbecile.
1
Warren Cuccurullo
The turning point really is just knowing you're an imbecile.
2
Olive Schreiner
How hard it is to make your thoughts look anything but imbecile fools when you paint them with ink on paper.
3
Robert E. Sherwood
To be able to write a play a man must be sensitive, imaginative, naive, gullible, passionate; he must be something of an imbecile, something of a poet, something of a liar, something of a damn fool.
4
David Steinberg
The one thing an audience always has in common with a comedian is troubles. The Yiddish word for that is tsuris. You're always putting your tsuris on stage whether you like it or not. No one is untroubled, unless they're just, you know, an imbecile.
5
Billy Wilder
An audience is never wrong. An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark - that is critical genius.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «IMBECILE»

Discover the use of imbecile in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to imbecile and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Releasing the Imbecile Within: An Incomplete Idiot's Guide
Comedian Paul Livingston presents a hilarious self-help course on the dangers of critical thinking that not only teaches you how to dumb down, but is an essential guide for total transcendence into ignorant bliss.
Paul Livingston, 2003
2
The Criminal Imbecile: An Analysis of Three Remarkable ...
To refuse to accept it would be to admit at once without further proof that the boy was crazy or an imbecile, since, if it were not true, it is inconceivable that any normal person would claim to have done such a deed. It is accepted then by all that ...
Henry H. Goddard, 2014
3
Tales of Suicide: A Selection from Luigi Pirandello's Short ...
The. Imbecile. { { "T~x ut what on earth had Mazzarini — the deputy Guido Maz- r-V zarini — to do with Pulino's suicide?" "Pulino? What! Did *□ * Pulino kill himself?" "Yes, Lulu Pulino, two hours ago. They found him in his house, hanging from ...
Luigi Pirandello, 1988
4
The Case of Valentine Shortis: A True Story of Crime and ...
Was Shortis a moral imbecile? Macmaster used Dr Bucke's own writings to argue he was not: In the first place, gentlemen, you know that Dr. Clarke, of Kingston, said that this man was a moral imbecile, and he described what a moral imbecile  ...
Martin L. Friedland, 1988
5
The Cyclopædia of practical medicine: comprising treatises ...
The imbecile in the second degree has less responsibility than in the first. His incapacity is greater, as likewise is his proneness to sudden emotions. " Similar considerations affect the responsibility of persons labouring under stupidity, when it ...
Sir John Forbes, Alexander Tweedie, John Conolly, 1835
6
The Criminal Brain: Understanding Biological Theories of Crime
Goddard's contribution to criminology was to equate the moron with the moral imbecile. Among both prison officials and specialists in mental retardation, the suspicion had been growing for decades that the feebleminded were inherently ...
Nicole Rafter, 2008
7
The War of the Elves (Book Two of the Changeling)
'Eh,. you! Imbecile. guard! Fetch. the. prisoners. at. once! At. once. you. imbecile!' The door of the dungeon opened and the guard - a fat, dishevelled, ruddy- complexioned individual in bedraggled doublet and hose, entered. Having constantly ...
Joe Rogers, 2006
8
Creating Born Criminals
In a landmark paper entitled "The Imbecile with Criminal Instincts," Fernald concluded that "every imbecile, especially the high-grade imbecile, is a potential criminal." These imbeciles, Fernald maintained, are equivalent to the instinctive ...
Nicole Hahn Rafter, 1997
9
Reading Cormac McCarthy
futility of this struggle is personified by the trope of the imbecile, which is another common feature of the Southern gothic tradition. The imbecile is a character born in a corrupted state, who often engages in corrupting behavior, and who is ...
Willard P. Greenwood, 2009
10
Mademoiselle Benoir
The boys, however, knew exactly what he was saying and began mimicking him — "imbecile . . . imbecile . . . ," this was imbecile, that was imbecile — to the rhythmic tapping of their heels. Apparently imbecile is his favorite word. He has no use ...
Christine Conrad, 2007

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «IMBECILE»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term imbecile is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Why I Believe Jared Leto's Joker will be Able to Rival Heath …
... that I know this article will be controversial and I'm sure I will see many comments directed towards me below stating what an imbecile I am. «moviepilot.com, Jul 15»
2
This year's Reader's Choice voting was all about the burger - San …
... at parties and at water coolers: the discourse on who has the best burger in San Antonio and why the other person clearly is an imbecile with ... «mySanAntonio.com, Jul 15»
3
Stop wagging the dog on PM's bank account - Malaysiakini
Once thing is clear, once you join Umno, you will never stop being an imbecile. Anticonmen: The words "cleverly forging" gave the game away. «Malaysiakini, Jul 15»
4
Sayed Kashua is moving, and the Iranians are there to help - Haaretz
By the time I discovered my mistake it was too late, and because I didn't want the salesman to think I'm an imbecile, I ended up with a Jeep jeep ... «Haaretz, Jul 15»
5
Kim Jong-un regime invites U.S. Congress, Obama's 'imbecile
North Korea wants all 535 members of U.S. Congress and the Obama administration's “imbecile secretaries and deputy secretaries” to come ... «Washington Times, Jul 15»
6
Carrie Bickmore Locks Horns, Roasts Shock Jock Steve Price Over …
to, "imbecile", to "wait, a woman was multi-tasking? Better shut that shit down,", etc. 'The Project' took on the story, putting Carrie Bickmore as ... «Pedestrian TV, Jul 15»
7
Top 10 3-on-3 OT Line Combinations
Both were drafted in the 1999 NHL entry draft by the Canucks, Daniel 2nd and Henrik 3rd, and have dazzled the league with their imbecile play ... «The Hockey Writers, Jul 15»
8
San Fran officials RUN from Fox reporters; 'You're interviewing the …
The first women in the interview said this would be stopped by gun control, is she an imbecile? The killer stole the gun from a state or federal ... «BizPac Review, Jul 15»
9
Streeter Cartoon: Knee-Jerk Foot Stomp | savannahnow.com
It's posted on the web, try to educate yourself so you won't sound like an imbecile. “Because of this deal, inspectors will also be able to access ... «Savannah Morning News, Jul 15»
10
Black Swan author Nassim Taleb claims GMOs could lead to eco …
The Genetic Literacy Project dissected many of his claims in November, 2014 in this article, “Is Nassim Taleb a “dangerous imbecile” or on the ... «Genetic Literacy Project, Jul 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Imbecile [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/imbecile>. Apr 2024 ».
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