phlegmatic
/flɛɡˈmætɪk/
phlegmatic adjective: not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish.
Adjective
phlegmatic (comparative more phlegmatic, superlative most phlegmatic)
- Not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish.
- Calm and phlegmatic, with a clear eye, Mr. Fogg seemed a perfect type of that English composure which Angelica Kauffmann has so skilfully represented on canvas.1873, Jules Verne, chapter 2, in Around the World in 80 Days, archived from the original on 12 Apr 2012
- His head was bare, and though he moved with the speed we have mentioned, the Knight of the Sorrowful Face saw and noted all these details; he tried to follow him but could not because it was beyond the strength of Rocinante to travel that rugged ground, especially since he was by nature slow-paced...Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 178
- Synonyms:
- apathetic, cold-blooded, phlegmish, unflappable, stoic, adiaphroistic, apathistical, blasé, blithe, deaf
- Generating, causing, or full of phlegm.
- cold and phlegmatic bodies1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC
- Near-synonyms: phlegmish, phlegmy
- Synonyms:
- phlegmatous, phlegmish, phlegmy
Noun
phlegmatic (plural phlegmatics)
- One who has a phlegmatic disposition.
phlegmatic meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
phlegmatic in Tamil
- கபம் உண்டு பண்ணுகின்ற, சிலேத்தும, தாமச, எளிதில் கிளர்ச்சி அடையாத, உணர்ச்சியைக் காட்டாத, விரைவில் செயல்படாத
phlegmatic in Urdu
- بلغمی
phlegmatic in Bengali
- শান্ত, আবেগহীন
phlegmatic in Malayalam
- composed, calm, cool
- അക്ഷുബ്ധ, പ്രശാന്തമായ, അക്ഷോഭ, അക്ഷോഭ്യ, നിയന്ത്രിത, ഉദാസീനമായ
More languagesFewer languages
- phlegmatic in Kannada
- ನಿರುದ್ವೇಗದ, ಸಂಯಮದ, ಉತ್ಸಾಹಶೂನ್ಯ, ಭಾವಶೂನ್ಯ
- phlegmatic in Sanskrit
- कफल kaphala, खेट kheṭa
Synonyms of phlegmatic
- apathetic
- cold-blooded
- phlegmish
- unflappable
- stoic
- adiaphroistic
- apathistical
- blasé
- blithe
- deaf
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of phlegmatic
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more phlegmatic |
| superlative | most phlegmatic |
| alternative form | phlegmatick |
| alternative form | phlegmaticke |
| alternative form | phlegmatique |
| Noun | |
| plural | phlegmatics |
Origin of phlegmatic
From Middle English fleumatik, flewmatik, flematik, fleumatyke, flewmatyk, from Old French fleumatique, from Latin phlegmaticus, from Ancient Greek φλεγματικός (phlegmatikós), from φλέγμα (phlégma), referring to the humour which ancient Hippocratic and later Galenic medicine associated with mildness, coldness, sluggishness, and indifference. Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots, with modern pronunciation following this new spelling.
Words formed from phlegmatic
Words that rhyme with phlegmatic
- automatic
- chromatic
- emphatic
- static
- systematic
- idiomatic
- attic
- hexachromatic
- thematic
- aromatic
- democratic
- hepatic
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- lymphatic
- schematic
- adiabatic
- aristocratic
- asymptomatic
- athematic
- autocratic
- axiomatic
- chiasmatic
- erratic
- fanatic
- fluorochromatic
- interchromatic
- prismatic
- psychosomatic
- quadchromatic
- rheumatic
- sciatic
- stromatic
- aerobatic
- altermatic
- aposematic
- asthmatic
- bathochromatic
- bizygomatic
- bureaucratic
- chorochromatic
- chromocratic
- circumzygomatic
- coccochromatic
- curatic
- diabatic
- dyschromatic
- endolymphatic
- episematic
- epistatic
- frontozygomatic
- glymphatic
- goniochromatic
- graphematic
- herostratic
- hydroinformatic
- idiosyncratic
- immunochromatic
- infrazygomatic
- interzygomatic
- katabatic
- kinechromatic
Questions about phlegmatic
- What does phlegmatic mean?
- Phlegmatic means not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish.
- What is phlegmatic in Tamil?
- Phlegmatic in Tamil is கபம் உண்டு பண்ணுகின்ற, சிலேத்தும, தாமச. See Phlegmatic meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is phlegmatic?
- Phlegmatic can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce phlegmatic?
- Phlegmatic is pronounced /flɛɡˈmætɪk/.
Words near phlegmatic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: phlegmatic (page history and authors); phlegmatic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); phlegmatic (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); phlegmatic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); phlegmatic (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); phlegmatic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कफल (Sanskrit) (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-phlegmatic.ogg.
Cite this entry: “phlegmatic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/phlegmatic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.