mutism

[myoo-tiz-uh m]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR mutism ON THESAURUS.COM

noun Psychiatry.

an inability to speak, due to a physical defect, conscious refusal, or psychogenic inhibition.

RELATED WORDS

freeze, aphonia, butterflies

Nearby words

Origin of mutism

From the New Latin word mūtismus, dating back to 1815–25. See mute, -ism

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for mutism

It is not unlike the ordinary stupor in the fact that there was intense inactivity and mutism with great tenseness.
Benign Stupors|August Hoch
Dumb walls merely, their mutism leaves large scope to imagination, and one may conjecture any but the right thing.
The Mayas, the Sources of Their History / Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, His Account of Discoveries|Stephen Salisbury, Jr.
From the description this again seems to have been a typical stupor (immobility, mutism, tendency to catalepsy, rigidity).
Benign Stupors|August Hoch
Her mutism and refusal of food she was unable to account for.
Benign Stupors|August Hoch

Later, this was followed by mutism, refusal to eat, and stupor.
Studies in Forensic Psychiatry|Bernard Glueck

British Dictionary definitions for mutism

mutism

noun

the state of being mute

psychiatry

a refusal to speak although the mechanism of speech is not damaged
the lack of development of speech, due usually to early deafness

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for mutism

mutism

"state of being mute," 1824, from French mutisme (1741), from Latin mutus (see mute (adj.)).

Medicine definitions for mutism

mutism

[myōō′tĭz′əm]

n.

Absence of the faculty of speech.