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dumb

/dʌm/adjective, verb, adverb

dumb is spelled D-U-M-B: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,785th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “dum vs dumb” about 50 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, dumb means “Unable to speak; lacking power of speech” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dumb?

Letters4: D-U-M-B
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing35 times per million words; the 2,785th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is dumb?

Dumb appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,785th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce dumb?

  • /dʌm/
  • /ɖəm(b)/

Dumb has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-ca-dumb.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with dumb

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

dum vs dumb50 G

Also written: dum, young, dumb, and full of come.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of dumb

  • dumber comparative
  • dumbest superlative
  • dumbs present, singular, he/she/it
  • dumbing participle, present
  • dumbed participle, past
  • more dumb comparative
  • most dumb superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does dumb mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    datedUnable to speak; lacking power of speech.

    deaf, dumb, and blind

  2. 2

    archaicNot talkative; taciturn or unwilling to speak.

  3. 3

    datedHaving no input or voice in running things.

  4. 4

    datedUnaccompanied by words or speech, silent, wordless.

    dumb show

  5. 5

    datedNot producing any sound, silent.

  6. 6

    derogatoryinformalStupid.

    You are so dumb! You don't even know how to make toast!

  7. 7

    Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.

    This is dumb! We're driving in circles! We should have asked for directions an hour ago!

  8. 8

    Lacking some functionality or property ordinarily characteristic of its kind.

  9. 9

    datedAn intensifier expressing contempt; damn, damned.

verb

  1. 1

    datedTo silence.

  2. 2

    To make stupid.

  3. 3

    To represent as stupid.

  4. 4

    To reduce the intellectual demands of.

adverb

  1. 1

    Very, extremely.

noun

as DUMB
  1. 1

    Alternative form of D.U.M.B. (deep underground military base)

adjective

as DUMB
  1. 1

    An acronym for remembering desirable characteristics for goal-setting: dream-driven, uplifting, method-driven, behavior-driven.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Dumb in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchstupide, débile, idiot, niais, bête (stupid), bête stupide (pointless or unintellectual)
Germandumm, idiotisch (stupid), sinnlos, dümmlich (pointless or unintellectual)
Portugueseburro, idiota (stupid), estúpido (pointless or unintellectual)
Spanishtonto, mentecapto, adundado, sandio (stupid), atontar (to make stupid)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dumb come from?

From Middle English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, ineffectual”), from Old English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, unable to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *dumb, from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dull, dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). The senses of stupid, unintellectual, and pointless, which are found regularly since the 19th century only, probably developed under the influence of German dumm and Dutch dom. Just like the English word, these originally meant "lacking the power of speech", but they developed the mentioned senses early on.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after dumb