Deaf vs Mute - What's the difference?
deaf | mute |
Unable to hear, or only partially able to hear.
* Shakespeare
* Dryden
Unwilling to listen or be persuaded; determinedly inattentive; regardless.
* Shakespeare
Obscurely heard; stifled; deadened.
* Dryden
(obsolete, UK, dialect) Decayed; tasteless; dead.
* Holland
Deaf people considered as a group.
Not having the power of speech; dumb.
* Ovid: Metamorphoses , translated by (John Dryden)
Silent; not making a sound.
* Milton
* 1956 , Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins (?, translators), Lion Feuchtwanger (German author), Raquel: The Jewess of Toledo'' (translation of '' ), Messner, page 178:
Not uttered; unpronounced; silent; also, produced by complete closure of the mouth organs which interrupt the passage of breath; said of certain letters.
Not giving a ringing sound when struck; said of a metal.
(obsolete, theatre) An actor who does not speak; a mime performer.
* 1668 OF Dramatick Poesie, AN ESSAY. By JOHN DRYDEN Esq; ((John Dryden))
A person who does not have the power of speech.
A hired mourner at a funeral; an undertaker's assistant.
*
* 1978 , (Lawrence Durrell), Livia'', Faber & Faber 1992 (''Avignon Quintet ), p. 481:
(music) An object for dulling the sound of an instrument, especially a brass instrument, or damper for pianoforte; a sordine.
To silence, to make quiet.
To turn off the sound of.
To cast off; to moult.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
As adjectives the difference between deaf and mute
is that deaf is unable to hear, or only partially able to hear while mute is not having the power of speech; dumb.As nouns the difference between deaf and mute
is that deaf is deaf people considered as a group while mute is a stopped consonant; a stop.As verbs the difference between deaf and mute
is that deaf is to deafen while mute is to silence, to make quiet.deaf
English
Adjective
(er)- Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf .
- Deaf with the noise, I took my hasty flight.
- Those people are deaf to reason.
- O, that men's ears should be / To counsel deaf , but not to flattery!
- A deaf murmur through the squadron went.
- a deaf''' nut; '''deaf corn
- (Halliwell)
- If the season be unkindly and intemperate, they [peppers] will catch a blast; and then the seeds will be deaf , void, light, and naught.
Synonyms
* hard of hearing * hearing-impairedDerived terms
* turn a deaf ear * stone deaf * fall on deaf earsSee also
* inaudible (unable to be heard ) * anosmic * blindNoun
Derived terms
* deaf aid * deaf and dumb * deaf-mute * deafen * deafnessSee also
* (pedia) * (Deaf culture)Anagrams
* * ----mute
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), (etyl) (m), from .Adjective
(er)- Thus, while the mute creation downward bend / Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, / Man looks aloft; and with erected eyes / Beholds his own hereditary skies. / From such rude principles our form began; / And earth was metamorphos'd into Man.
- All the heavenly choir stood mute , / And silence was in heaven.
- “ The heathens have broken into Thy Temple, and Thou art silent! Esau mocks Thy Children, and Thou remainest mute'! Show thyself, arise, and let Thy Voice resound, Thou '''mutest''' among all the ' mute !”
Noun
(en noun)- As for the poor honest Maid, whom all the Story is built upon, and who ought to be one of the principal Actors in the Play, she is commonly a Mute in it:
- The little box was eventually carried in one hand by the leading mute , while his colleague, with a finger placed on the lid, to prevent it from swaying, walked to one side and a little to the rear.
- Then followed a long silence during which the mute turned to them and said, ‘Of course you'll be wanting an urn, sir?’
Verb
(mut)- Please mute the music while I make a call.
Derived terms
* muterSee also
* autism * dumbEtymology 2
From (etyl) (m), probably a shortened form of (m), ultimately from (etyl).Verb
(mut)- (Ben Jonson)
Etymology 3
(etyl) (lena) .Verb
(mut)- Have I muted all my feathers?