dumbed

Reduced in complexity

Dumbed is the past tense of dumb, meaning to make or become less intelligent or sophisticated.

Almost always appears with down: They dumbed down the curriculum.

To dumb something down is to simplify it, usually with the implication that the original was too challenging for its audience—often used critically: The movie dumbed down the novel's complex themes.

simplified

oversimplified

Made misleadingly basic

elementary · reduced · streamlined · abridged · condensed · pared-down · bare-bones · stripped · digestible · accessible

stupidity

stupefied

Overwhelmed into mental blankness

blunted · dimmed · befuddled · dazed · muddled · addled · fogged · stunned · glazed · blanked

condescension

patronizing

Treating someone as inferior

demeaning · underestimating · disrespectful · condescending · deprecating · infantilizing · babying · spoon-feeding · hand-holding · coddling

Opposites
intellectual complexity

dumbedsmartened

Made more polished

enriched · elevated · sophisticated · elaborated · intellectualized

cognitive sophistication

dumbedsmart

Mentally quick, or fashionable

intelligent · brilliant · savvy · sharpened · brightened

Phrases
Family

dumb, dumber, dumbest, dumbing, dumbs, dumbing down

Familiarity
Top 100,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Negative · Everyday, not technical · Rated G