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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

imbecile.

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.

8 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɪmbəˈsiːl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɪmbəsɪl/General-American/ˈɪmbəsəl/General-American/ɪmˈbɛsɪl/obsolete
  1. 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.

    obsolete
  2. A fool, an idiot.

    derogatory
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French imbécile, from Latin imbēcillus (“weak, feeble”), literally “without a staff”.

adj/ɪmbəˈsiːl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɪmbəsɪl/General-American/ˈɪmbəsəl/General-American/ɪmˈbɛsɪl/obsolete
  1. Destitute of strength, whether of body or mind; feeble; impotent; especially, mentally weak.

    dated
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French imbécile, from Latin imbēcillus (“weak, feeble”), literally “without a staff”.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.