Deaf-mute
deaf person using a sign language or both deaf and could not speak
Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have some degree of speaking ability, but choose not to speak because of the negative or unwanted attention atypical voices sometimes attract. Such people communicate using sign language. Some consider it to be a derogatory term if used outside its historical context; the preferred term today is simply deaf.
Historical usage of deaf-mute and other terms
United Kingdom
In 19th-century British English mute and dumb meant 'non-speaking', and were not pejorative terms. For example, in 1889 Queen Victoria instigated the Royal Commission on The Blind, the Deaf and Dumb etc. in the United Kingdom. The intention was to examine contemporary education and employment of blind or deaf people, with a view to improving conditions for them. By the 1840s, it was estimated that one person in 1,622 of the population in the United Kingdom was classed as a deaf-mute. The Oxford English Dictionary states that the North American pejorative usage of the word "dumb" to imply stupidity was first noted in the UK in 1928.
“Deaf-mute” enters the record as deaf person using a sign language or both deaf and could not speak. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Deaf-mute, deaf and person can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Deaf-mute” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Deaf-mute, deaf and person provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1118643. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1889 and 1928.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Deaf-mute” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.