Disabilities

How to spell disabilities

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce disabilities

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does disabilities mean?

1. nounPhysical or mental conditions that limit a person's movements, senses, or activities.

Disabilities in a sentence

• The new building was designed to accommodate people with physical disabilities.

• The charity supports adults living with learning disabilities.

Where does disabilities come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the plural of disability, which combines the negative prefix dis-, meaning 'not' or 'the opposite of', with ability. Ability itself traces back through Old French to the Latin habilitas, 'aptitude' or 'fitness', built on habilis, meaning 'easy to handle, suitable, apt', from habere, 'to have or to hold'. The 'h' of habilis was lost as the word passed through French, which is why we write 'able' and 'ability' without it. Disability appeared in English in the sixteenth century, first describing a legal incapacity or lack of power, and only later broadened to its modern medical and social senses. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle: the schwa vowels in 'dis-a-BIL-i-ties' give no clue whether to write an 'a' or an 'i', and the plural softens the ending to a slurred '-ities'.

How the word is built

• dis- (lack of, opposite)
• abil (from Latin habilis: able, fit)
• -ity (noun suffix)
• -es (plural)