Word.ws English Dictionary

brain-dead

/ˈbɹeɪnˌdɛd/

brain-dead adjective: having an irreversible loss of brain function and cessation of brain activity.

Adjective

brain-dead (comparative more brain-dead, superlative most brain-dead)

  1. (not comparable) Having an irreversible loss of brain function and cessation of brain activity.
    • An employee of the mayor's office was declared brain-dead on Sunday morning after she and another woman were struck by a hit-and-run driver while crossing Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, the authorities said.2010 February 22, Michael S. Schmidt, Karen Zraick, “Hit and Run in Brooklyn Leaves One Brain-Dead”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  2. (colloquial, derogatory) Having no useful thoughts; stupid; ditzy.
    • "AI has been brain-dead since the 1970s," said AI guru Marvin Minsky in a recent speech at Boston University. Minsky co-founded the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1959 with John McCarthy.2003 May 13, Mark Baard, quoting Marvin Minsky, “AI Founder Blasts Modern Research”, in Wired, →ISSN

Noun

brain-dead (plural brain-deads)

  1. (derogatory, informal) An unintelligent person.
    • "What makes you different from all the other brain-deads that come through here?"2015 October 6, Sarah J. Schmitt, It's a Wonderful Death, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN

Forms of brain-dead

Adjective
comparativemore brain-dead
superlativemost brain-dead
alternative formbrain dead
alternative formbraindead
Noun
pluralbrain-deads

Origin of brain-dead

From brain + dead. Coined by the Harvard physician Henry K. Beecher in the historical context of the Sixties counterculture and life extension technology of the late twentieth century.

Questions about brain-dead

What does brain-dead mean?
Brain-dead means having an irreversible loss of brain function and cessation of brain activity.
What part of speech is brain-dead?
Brain-dead can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce brain-dead?
Brain-dead is pronounced /ˈbɹeɪnˌdɛd/.

Words near brain-dead in the dictionary

  1. brain-bucket
  2. brain-buckets
  3. brain-cramp
  4. brain-cramps
  5. brain-damaged
  6. brain-dead
  7. brain-deads
  8. brain-drain
  9. brain-drained
  10. brain-draining
  11. brain-drains

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brain-dead (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-brain-dead.wav.

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