Word.ws English Dictionary

deaf

/dɛf//diːf/

deaf adjective: unable (or partially able) to hear.

Adjective (1)

deaf (comparative deafer, superlative deafest)

  1. Unable (or partially able) to hear.
    • My brother has been deaf since sustaining injuries in the war.
    • It's important for TV shows to provide closed captioning for the deaf.
  2. Unwilling to listen or be persuaded; determinedly inattentive.
    • Those people are deaf to reason.
    • O, that men's ears should be / To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. Of or relating to the community of deaf people.
    • The best place to fight Hollywood deafism is in our deaf schools. If we give our children understanding and appreciation of our rich culture and sign language, the students will gain a deaf heritage and become more creative, more aware, and more assertive global deaf citizens.1994, Bruce N. Snider, Carol Erting, Robert C. Johnson, The Deaf Way, page 734
  4. (obsolete) Obscurely heard; stifled; deadened.
    • A deaf murmur through the squadron went.1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  5. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) Decayed; tasteless; useless.
    • a deaf nut; deaf corn
    • If the season be unkindly and intemperate, they [peppers] will catch a blast; and then the seeds will be deafe, void, light, and naught.1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C....

Noun

deaf (plural deafs)

  1. (nonstandard, rare) A deaf person.
    • Among the second group of philanthropic educational institutions the institutes for the deafs and dumbs must be mentioned.1897, József Jekelfalussy, The Millennium of Hungary and Its People, page 347
    • Negotiations for South Vietnam's political future and the enforcement of cease-fire between two sides progressed like a conversation between two deafs.1980, Cao Van Vien, Van Khuyen Dong, Reflections on the Vietnam War

Verb

deaf (third-person singular simple present deafs, present participle deafing, simple past and past participle deafed)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To deafen.
    • It is enough, my hearing shall be punish'd With what shall happen, -- 'gainst the which there is No deafing -- but to hear, not taint mine eye With dread sights that it may shun.1634, John Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Two Noble Kinsmen
    • Svvift as a VVhirl-vvind to the Nurſe he flyes; / And deafs his ſtormy Subjects vvith his cries.1680, John Dryden, “Canace to Macareus”, in Ovid, Ovid’s Epistles, […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 13

Adjective (2) capitalized: Deaf

Deaf (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to the culture surrounding deaf users of sign languages.
    • Today, sign languages are the means of communication and interaction in Deaf communities around the world and have been shown to contain all the linguistic complexities and potentials of spoken languages (Stokoe, 1960/2005).2005, Patricia Elizabeth Spencer, Marc Marschark, Advances in the Spoken Language Development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 3
    • There are Deaf clubs in many cities, but the clubs are just a part of the larger community of Deaf people.2006, David Alan Stewart, Elizabeth Stewart, American Sign Language the Easy Way, Barron's Educational Series, →ISBN, page 101

deaf meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

deaf in Hindi

unable to hear
बहरा bahrā, बधिर badhir

deaf in Tamil

செவிடான, கேட்க விரும்பாத

deaf in Marathi

unable to hear
बधीर badhīr, बहिरा bahirā

deaf in Urdu

unable to hear
بہرا bahrā
More languagesFewer languages
deaf in Bengali
বয়রা boẏora, অকর্ণ okorno
deaf in Telugu
చెవిటి ceviṭi, చెవిటివాళ్ళు ceviṭivāḷḷu, బధిరులు badhirulu
deaf in Malayalam
ചെവിട് ceviṭŭ, പൊട്ടൻ poṭṭaṉ
deaf in Kannada
ಪೊಟ್ಟು, ಕಿವುಂಡು, ಕಿವುಡು, ಕೆಪ್ಪು
deaf in Punjabi
ڈورا ḍorā
deaf in Gujarati
બહેરું baherũ
deaf in Odia
ବଧିର badhira
deaf in Sanskrit
बधिर badhira, कल्ल kalla
deaf in Sinhala
බිහිරි bihiri
deaf in Assamese
কলা kola, অন্ধ ondho
deaf in Pashto
کوڼ kuṇ
deaf in Tagalog
bingi
deaf in Arabic
أَصَمّ ʔaṣamm, أَطْرَش ʔaṭraš, اَلصُّمّ aṣ-ṣumm
deaf in Malay
pekak, tuli, congek, tunakerna
deaf in Indonesian
tuli, tuna rungu
deaf in Persian
کر kar, ناشنوا nâšenavâ
deaf in Thai
หูหนวก hǔu-nùuak
deaf in Vietnamese
điếc
deaf in Myanmar
နားပင်း na:pang:
Kashmiri
زۆر zor

Examples of deaf in a sentence

  • Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies...
  • Deaf vvith the noyſe I took my haſty flight.1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock]...
  • Two deafs did not always make deaf babies.2015, Judith Richards, The Sounds of Silence, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with deaf

Synonyms of deaf

Forms of deaf

Adjective
comparativedeafer
superlativedeafest
Noun
pluraldeafs
Verb
third-person singular presentdeafs
present participledeafing
past participledeafed
pastdeafed

Origin of deaf

From Middle English def, deef, from Old English dēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *daub (“deaf”), from Proto-Germanic *daubaz (“deaf or stunned”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). Cognate with Ancient Greek τυφλός (tuphlós, “blind”). See also dumb. Doublet of daff, dof, and dowf. Cognate with Dutch doof, German taub, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål døv, Norwegian Nynorsk dauv, Swedish döv, Faroese deyvur, Icelandic daufur.

From deaf.

Words formed from deaf

Phrases with deaf

7 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with deaf

15 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about deaf

What does deaf mean?
Deaf means unable (or partially able) to hear.
What is deaf in Hindi?
Deaf in Hindi is बहरा (bahrā), बधिर (badhir). See Deaf meaning in Hindi.
How do you use deaf in a sentence?
Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf.
What part of speech is deaf?
Deaf can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce deaf?
Deaf is pronounced /dɛf/.

Words near deaf in the dictionary

  1. deaerating
  2. deaeration
  3. deaerations
  4. deaerator
  5. deaerators
  6. deaf
  7. deaf adder
  8. deaf adders
  9. deaf aid
  10. deaf aids
  11. deaf and dumb

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deaf (page history and authors); Deaf (page history and authors); deaf (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অকর্ণ (Bengali) (page history and authors); ചെവിട് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); deaf (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ڈورا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); બહેરું (Gujarati) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-deaf.ogg.

Cite this entry: “deaf.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deaf. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.