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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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

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. A mental condition causing a difficulty with an intellectual task.
   • Dyscalculia is math disability.
3. 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.

4. (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 templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}} to add them to the appropriate sense(s).

• 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)

• Finnish: vammaisuus (fi)

mental condition

• Finnish: häiriö (fi)

legal incapacity or incompetency

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

• Portuguese: incompetência (pt) f
• 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
• Russian: посо́бие по инвали́дности (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

• Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} неспособност (bg) f (nesposobnost)
• German: ^{(please verify)} Invalidität (de) f

• Macedonian: ^{(please verify)} неспособност f (nespósobnost), ^{(please verify)} инвалидитет m (invaliditét)
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} sakatlık (tr)