intellectual disability

American  

[in-tl-ek-choo-uhl dis-uh-bil-i-tee] / ˌɪn tlˈɛk tʃu əl ˌdɪs əˈbɪl ɪ ti /

noun

1. a developmental disorder characterized in varying degrees by significant limitations on intellectual abilities, such as learning, problem solving, and reasoning, and on adaptive abilities such as social and practical skills: the diagnostic term intellectual disability replaced the older designation mental retardation in the 2010s. ID

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Etymology

Origin of intellectual disability

First recorded in 1805–10

Example Sentences

Researchers analyzed outcomes for 262,852 children assessed for autism, 335,255 evaluated for ADHD, and 406,681 assessed for intellectual disability.

From Science Daily • Jan. 19, 2026

But the court offered no bright line definition of what would count as an intellectual disability of sufficient seriousness to take the death penalty off the table.

From Slate • Dec. 8, 2025

Clinicians might also be less frequently assigning other labels such as intellectual disability, formally referred to as mental retardation, some data suggest.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 14, 2025

It listed a number of "targeted disabilities": "Hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism".

From BBC • Jan. 31, 2025

In 2002, there were about a hundred people with mental retardation facing execution when the Court banned the death penalty for people with intellectual disability.

From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

Related Words

• cognitive impairment
• debilitation
• impairment
• incapacitation
• limitation
• restriction