disability
Americannoun
plural
disabilities-
lack of adequate power, strength, or physical or mental ability; incapacity.
- Synonyms:
- deficit, impairment
-
a physical or mental impairment, especially one that hinders or prevents a person from performing tasks of daily living, carrying out work or household responsibilities, or engaging in leisure and social activities.
-
anything that disables or puts one at a disadvantage.
His mere six-foot height will be a disability in professional basketball.
-
the state or condition of being disabled.
-
legal incapacity; legal disqualification.
noun
-
the condition of being unable to perform a task or function because of a physical or mental impairment
-
something that disables; handicap
-
lack of necessary intelligence, strength, etc
-
an incapacity in the eyes of the law to enter into certain transactions
Sensitive Note
Disability is a general term for one or more functional limitations in carrying out major life activities. A disability may be physical, mental, or sensory. The language used to describe disabilities and people with disabilities has changed over time, and older words and phrases like cripple, handicapped, or special needs are no longer recommended and often cause offense. In many cases there is no reason to mention someone’s disability at all; however, when you do introduce disability as a part of an individual’s whole self, it is usually preferable to be specific: “a woman with cerebral palsy” rather than generically “a woman with a disability.” Sometimes the important information is a person’s membership in the disability community, in which case the umbrella term disability is appropriate: “employer accommodation for an employee with a disability.” Some people, especially in the disability rights community, prefer to write disability as dis/ability, (dis)ability, or disAbility in an effort to emphasize ability and minimize ableism. In the same spirit, some also use the words able and ability to mean disabled or disability, as in: “Able team members are asked to share accessibility concerns with their team leader” or “The city council will defer to the recommendations of the ability committee.” This use of able and ability is criticized by some for being unclear or overly euphemistic and is not preferred over the straightforward terms disabled and disability.
Usage
Many deaf and hard of hearing people object to the use of the phrase hearing disability
Related Words
Disability, inability imply a lack of power or ability. A disability is a functional limitation, physical or other: excused because of a physical disability; a temporary disability. Inability is a lack of ability, usually because of an inherent lack of talent, power, etc.: inability to talk; inability to do well in higher mathematics.
Etymology
Origin of disability
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His family had been eligible for a government grant because of his eight-year-old daughter's disabilities.
From BBC
The result is a powerful meditation on the roles of disability, autonomy and privilege in the shaping of literary making in an age when art itself is increasingly threatened by machines.
From Los Angeles Times
She’s made relationships at the South Central Los Angeles Regional Center, a nonprofit contracted with the California Department of Developmental Services, to provide support and resources to those with developmental disabilities.
From Los Angeles Times
He said Leighton, who is nine years old, is living with a few disabilities.
From BBC
Ms Benthaus, who works at the European Space Agency, said she had "really, really figured out how inaccessible our world still is" for people with disabilities following her accident.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
