What does feebleminded mean?
Feebleminded is an adjective meaning having significantly below-average intellectual capacity or impaired mental function. Formed by combining 'feeble' (weak) with 'minded', it entered English as both a literal description of cognitive impairment and a figurative way to describe foolish or ill-judged behavior. For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it carried clinical weight: it appeared in psychiatric textbooks, institutional records, and even statutes governing sterilization and immigration in several countries. That official history is precisely why the word is so charged today — advocacy for people with disabilities led to its replacement by terms such as 'intellectual disability', and calling a person feebleminded is now widely considered offensive. In current writing it appears mainly in historical contexts or as a figurative swipe at a badly conceived idea, and even that use strikes many readers as insensitive. Knowing the word is useful chiefly for reading older texts and understanding why language around disability has changed.
Having significantly below-average intellectual functioning or impaired mental ability.
"The court's early twentieth-century rulings used 'feebleminded' as a formal category of incapacity."
Now dated and offensive as a descriptor for people; use 'intellectually disabled' instead.
(Figurative) Marked by poor judgment, foolishness, or a lack of common sense.
"It was a feebleminded attempt at diplomacy that only deepened the quarrel."
Common in informal criticism but may read as harsh or insensitive.
For decades 'feebleminded' was an official medical diagnosis and even a legal category in American courts — until the disability rights movement buried it under a far more humane vocabulary.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of feebleminded
Feebleminded is a compound of 'feeble' and the participial adjective 'minded'. 'Feeble' came into Middle English from Old French 'feble' (itself a variant of 'flaible'), ultimately descending from the Latin 'flebilis', meaning 'lamentable' or 'to be wept over'; the same Latin root gives English words such as 'enfeeble' and related forms like 'feebleness'. The compound arose in English by at least the early modern period and gained prominence in the nineteenth century as a quasi-medical label before falling out of professional use.
Related word forms
How feebleminded is actually used
The term was once a formal psychiatric and legal classification but is now regarded as derogatory and outdated; 'intellectually disabled' is the accepted modern term. In contemporary usage it survives mainly in figurative, often dismissive descriptions of foolish decisions, and even there it can sound harsh or dated.
Easily confused with feebleminded
'Feeble' describes physical weakness or general lack of strength (or unconvincing effort), while 'feebleminded' specifically refers to impaired mental or intellectual capacity.