disability

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “disability” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Etymology

Circa 1570 disable +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsəˈbɪlɪti/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

Noun

disability (usually uncountable, plural disabilities)

1. State of being disabled; deprivation or want of ability; absence of competent physical, intellectual, or moral power, means, fitness, and the like.
   • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], OCLC 868004604, book:

     Grossest faults, or disabilities to perform what was covenanted.

   • 1834-1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

     Chatham refused to see him, pleading his disability.

2. A mental condition causing a difficulty with an intellectual task.

   Dyscalculia is math disability.

3. (disability theory) An inability imposed on a person by society's failure to accommodate their physical or mental differences from others, as opposed to impairment.

   Synonym: handicap

4. Want of legal qualification to do a thing; legal incapacity or incompetency.
5. (uncountable, informal) Regular payments received by a disabled person, usually from the state

   I had to go on disability after the accident.

   Did you get your disability this month?

Usage notes

• Disability and inability: Inability is an inherent want of power to perform the thing in question; disability arises from some deprivation or loss of the needed competency. One who becomes deranged is under a disability of holding his estate; and one who is made a judge, of deciding in his own case. A man may decline an office on account of his inability to discharge its duties; he may refuse to accept a trust or employment on account of some disability prevents him from entering into such engagements.

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• disqualification
• impotence
• inability
• incapacity
• incompetency
• incompetence
• weakness

Antonyms

• ability
• capacity
• competence
• competency
• potence
• potential
• qualification
• strength

Related terms

• disable
• disabled
• disablism

Translations

state of being disabled

• Armenian: հաշմանդամություն (hy) (hašmandamutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} инвалидност (bg) f (invalidnost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 殘廢 (zh), 残废 (zh) (cánfèi), 殘疾 (zh), 残疾 (zh) (cánjí), 殘障 (zh), 残障 (zh) (cánzhàng)

• Finnish: vammaisuus (fi)
• Georgian: ინვალიდობა (invalidoba)
• Hungarian: mozgáskorlátozottság, mozgássérültség, fogyatékkal élés, (dated) rokkantság, (possibly offensive) fogyatékosság (hu)

• Indonesian: disabilitas
• Japanese: 障害 (ja) (しょうがい, shōgai)
• Kazakh: мүгедектік (mügedektik)
• Korean: 장애(障礙) (ko) (jang'ae)
• Malayalam: വികലത (ml) (vikalata)
• Maori: hauātanga
• Romanian: dizabilitate f
• Sanskrit: रपस् (sa) n (rapas)
• Thai: ความพิการ (th) (kwaam-pí-gaan)
• Turkish: engellilik (tr)

mental condition

• Finnish: häiriö (fi)

• Hungarian: értelmi fogyatékosság

legal incapacity or incompetency

• Bulgarian: неправоспособност (bg) f (nepravosposobnost)
• Czech: invalidita (cs) f, postižení (cs) n
• Finnish: vajaavaltaisuus, oikeustoimikelvottomuus
• French: invalidité (fr) f
• German: Behinderung (de) f

• Hungarian: jogképesség hiánya, akadályoztatás (hu)
• Portuguese: incompetência (pt) f
• Romanian: handicap (ro) n
• Russian: неправоспосо́бность (ru) f (nepravosposóbnostʹ)
• Spanish: incapacidad (es) f
• Turkish: sakatlık (tr)

regular payments received by a disabled person

• Czech: invalidní důchod m
• Finnish: vammaiseläke, työkyvyttömyyseläke (fi)
• French: pension d'invalidité f

• Hungarian: rokkantnyugdíj
• Polish: renta (pl) f
• Russian: посо́бие по инвали́дности n (posóbije po invalídnosti)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} Invalidität (de) f
• Macedonian: ^{(please verify)} неспособност f (nesposobnost), ^{(please verify)} инвалидите́т m (invaliditét)

• Manx: ^{(please verify)} anheiltys m
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} sakatlık (tr)