Library / English Dictionary

BACKWARDNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lack of normal development of intellectual capacities

Synonyms:

backwardness; mental retardation; retardation; slowness; subnormality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("backwardness" is a kind of...):

stupidity (a poor ability to understand or to profit from experience)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "backwardness"):

abnormality; mental defectiveness (retardation sufficient to fall outside the normal range of intelligence)

mental deficiency; moronity (mild mental retardation)

amentia; idiocy (extreme mental retardation)

imbecility (retardation more severe than a moron but not as severe as an idiot)

Derivation:

backward (retarded in intellectual development)

Credits