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Imbecility vs Fatuous - What's the difference?

imbecility | fatuous |

As a noun imbecility

is the quality of being imbecile; weakness; feebleness, especially of mind.

As an adjective fatuous is

obnoxiously stupid, vacantly silly, content in one's foolishness.

imbecility

English

Noun

  • The quality of being imbecile; weakness; feebleness, especially of mind.
  • Something imbecilic; a stupid action, behaviour, etc.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year= 1895 , year_published= , author= , by= (Max Simon Nordau) , title= Degeneration , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=LOWr5TsEaPUC&pg=PA270 , original= , chapter= , section= , isbn= , edition= , publisher= D. Appleton and Company , location= New York , editor= , volume= , page= 270 , passage= The Parnassian theory of art is mere imbecility . }}

    fatuous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Obnoxiously stupid, vacantly silly, content in one's foolishness.
    • To compare the intelligence levels of men and women is itself fatuous .

    Usage notes

    * Refers especially to foolishness and disregard of reality.

    Synonyms

    * (obnoxiously stupid) childish, imbecilic, inane, insipid, puerile

    Related terms

    * fatuity * fatuously * fatuousness * infatuate