SLOWNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does slowness mean? 

• SLOWNESS (noun)
  The noun SLOWNESS has 3 senses:

1. unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training

2. a rate demonstrating an absence of haste or hurry

3. lack of normal development of intellectual capacities

  Familiarity information: SLOWNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SLOWNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

awkwardness; clumsiness; ineptitude; ineptness; maladroitness; slowness

Hypernyms ("slowness" is a kind of...):

unskillfulness (a lack of cognitive skill)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "slowness"):

rustiness (ineptitude or awkwardness as a consequence of age or lack of practice)

Derivation:

slow (slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A rate demonstrating an absence of haste or hurry

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

deliberateness; deliberation; slowness; unhurriedness

Hypernyms ("slowness" is a kind of...):

pace; rate (the relative speed of progress or change)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "slowness"):

leisureliness (slowness by virtue of being leisurely)

dilatoriness; procrastination (slowness as a consequence of not getting around to it)

Derivation:

slow (not moving quickly; taking a comparatively long time)

slow (at a slow tempo)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lack of normal development of intellectual capacities

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

backwardness; mental retardation; retardation; slowness; subnormality

Hypernyms ("slowness" is a kind of...):

stupidity (a poor ability to understand or to profit from experience)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "slowness"):

abnormality; mental defectiveness (retardation sufficient to fall outside the normal range of intelligence)

mental deficiency; moronity (mild mental retardation)

amentia; idiocy (extreme mental retardation)

imbecility (retardation more severe than a moron but not as severe as an idiot)

Derivation:

slow (slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity)

 Context examples 

The last few inches to the wall of the tepee were crawled with painful slowness and precaution.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The minutes during which we waited passed with fearful slowness.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Hamilton Depression Rating Scale 21 Item (HAMD-21) Retardation; psychomotor (slowness of thought and speech, impaired ability to concentrate, decreased motor activity).

(HAMD-21 - Retardation, NCI Thesaurus)

If you have been frustrated with clients and management’s lack of decisiveness or slowness to approve and fund your ideas, that won’t be a problem anymore.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Again the other cleared his throat and spoke with painstaking and judicial slowness.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“I know you have it in for me,” Johnson continued with his unalterable and ponderous slowness. “You do not like me. You—you—”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

And then, with such a flush of shame and disgust as I had never known, I remembered how my attention had been drawn to my brother’s mode of dealing, its slowness, and the way in which he held each card by the lower corner.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her praise was warm, and he received it as she could wish, joining in it as far as discretion, and politeness, and slowness of speech would allow, and certainly appearing to greater advantage on the subject than his lady did soon afterwards, when Mary, perceiving her on a sofa very near, turned round before she began to dance, to compliment her on Miss Price's looks.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

We waited in a suspense that made the seconds pass with nightmare slowness.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Not a thing seemed to be stirring, but all to be grim and fixed as death or fate; so that a thin streak of white mist, that crept with almost imperceptible slowness across the grass towards the house, seemed to have a sentience and a vitality of its own.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)