adj., mut·er, mut·est.
- Refraining from producing speech or vocal sound.
- Often Offensive. Unable to speak.
- Unable to vocalize, as certain animals.
- Expressed without speech; unspoken: a mute appeal.
- Law. Refusing to plead when under arraignment.
- Linguistics.
- Not pronounced; silent, as the e in the word house.
- Pronounced with a temporary stoppage of breath, as the sounds (p) and (b); plosive; stopped.
- Often Offensive. One who is incapable of speech.
- Law. A defendant who refuses to plead when under arraignment.
- Music. Any of various devices used to muffle or soften the tone of an instrument.
- Linguistics.
- A silent letter.
- A plosive; a stop.
- To soften or muffle the sound of.
- To soften the tone, color, shade, or hue of.
[Middle English muet, from Old French, from diminutive of mu, from Latin mūtus.]
mutely mute'ly adv.muteness mute'ness n.
USAGE NOTE In reference to people who are unable to speak, mute and deaf-mute are now often considered objectionable. The offense is due not only to the bluntness of these terms but also to the implication that a person who is incapable of oral speech is necessarily deprived of the use of language. In fact, many deaf people today communicate naturally and fully through the use of a sign language such as ASL, and no one who has witnessed such a conversation would ever think to call the participants mute. See Usage Notes at deaf.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
