disability

English

Wikipedia

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Etymology

Circa 1570 disable +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsəˈbɪlɪti/

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.
   • (Can we date this quote?), John Milton

     Grossest faults, or disabilities to perform what was covenanted.

   • (Can we date this quote?), George Bancroft

     Chatham refused to see him, pleading his disability.

2. Want of legal qualification to do a thing; legal incapacity or incompetency.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Benjamin Vaughan Abbott.

     The disabilities of idiocy, infancy, and coverture.

3. (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. Use the template {{sense|"gloss"}}, substituting a short version of the definition for "gloss".

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

Antonyms

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

Related terms

• disable
• disabled
• disablism

Translations

absence of physical, intellectual, or moral fitness

• Armenian: հաշմանդամություն (hašmandamutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: недъгавост (bg) (nedǎgavost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 身心障礙 (zh), 身心障碍 (shēnxīn zhàng'ài), 殘疾, 残疾 (zh) (cánjí), 殘障 (zh), 残障 (cánzhàng), 傷殘, 伤残 (zh) (shāngcán), 殘廢, 残废 (zh) (cánfèi)

• French: infirmité (fr) f, handicap (fr) m
• German: Behinderung (de) f
• Japanese: 身体障害 (しんたいしょうがい, shintai shōgai)
• Russian: нетрудоспособность (ru) f (netrudosposóbnostʹ), инвалидность (ru) f (invalídnostʹ)
• Spanish: discapacidad f

legal incapacity or incompetency

• Bulgarian: неправоспособност (bg) (nepravosposobnost)
• French: invalidité (fr) f

• Russian: неправоспособность (ru) f (nepravosposóbnostʹ)
• Spanish: incapacidad (es) f

Regular payments received by adisabled person

• French: pension d'invalidité f

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 Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Bulgarian: неспособност (bg) f (nesposobnost)
• Czech: postižení n

• Macedonian: неспособност f (nespósobnost), инвалидитет m (invaliditét)
• Russian: неспособность (ru) f (nesposóbnostʹ), бессилие (ru) n (bessílije)
• Turkish: sakatlık (tr)