senility
Aged mental deterioration
Senility is the mental and physical deterioration associated with old age—forgetfulness, confusion, diminished capacity.
The term once served as a general label for age-related cognitive decline, though medicine now prefers more specific diagnoses like dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
Calling someone senile can be dismissive or cruel: His children whispered about his senility behind his back.
Age-related mental weakness
- second childhoodSenility's mental decline
- geezerInformal term for old man
- old-timerLong-tenured person
- fogeyPerson stuck in past
codger · crone · addled · batty · rambling · out of touch · past it · over the hill
Degenerative brain disease
- memoryMind's retention capacity
- confusionMental disorientation or bewilderment
- cognitiveRelating to thinking
- disorientationLoss of spatial awareness
forgetfulness · neurodegenerative · sundowning · wandering · aphasia · agnosia · apraxia · delusions
Process of declining quality
- degenerationProgressive loss of function
- decayGradual organic breakdown
- regressionReturn to former state
- fadingGradual loss of intensity
waning · slippage · impairment · erosion · diminishment · decrepitude · atrophy · ebbing
Weak and ineffective
- infirmWeak in body
- decrepitWorn by age
- enfeebledMade weak or feeble
- debilitatedMade weak or infirm
unsteady · faltering · withered · fragile · vulnerable · doddering · tottering · shuffling
Growing older over time
- neurodegenerationProgressive loss of neurons
- telomereProtective chromosome terminus
- plaquesCommemorative mounted inscriptions
- tanglesKnotted, twisted masses
gerontology · longevity · lifespan · cellular · genetic · biomarker · neuropathology
dotage
Age-related mental weakness
- second childhoodSenility's mental decline
- geezerInformal term for old man
- old-timerLong-tenured person
fogey · codger · crone · addled · batty · rambling · out of touch · past it · over the hill · obsolete
Alzheimer's
Degenerative brain disease
- memoryMind's retention capacity
- confusionMental disorientation or bewilderment
- cognitiveRelating to thinking
disorientation · forgetfulness · neurodegenerative · sundowning · wandering · aphasia · agnosia · apraxia · delusions · hallucinations
deterioration
Process of declining quality
- degenerationProgressive loss of function
- decayGradual organic breakdown
- regressionReturn to former state
fading · waning · slippage · impairment · erosion · diminishment · decrepitude · atrophy · ebbing · weakening
feeble
Weak and ineffective
debilitated · unsteady · faltering · withered · fragile · vulnerable · doddering · tottering · shuffling · trembling
aging
Growing older over time
- neurodegenerationProgressive loss of neurons
- telomereProtective chromosome terminus
- plaquesCommemorative mounted inscriptions
tangles · gerontology · longevity · lifespan · cellular · genetic · biomarker · neuropathology
- agingaging process, aging body, biological age, aging workforce, aging parents
- aging humorretirement jokes, over the hill, old timer, geezer, old fogey
- Aging Problemsdementia, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, arthritis, falls
- aging psychologyaging brain, life review, late adulthood, life span, brain aging
- cognitive agingcognitive decline, memory decline, memory loss, brain aging, aging brain
- Memory Lossamnesia, forgetting, forgetfulness, memory loss, memory lapse
senilitymental acuity
Sharpness of thought
sharpness · lucidity · mental sharpness · mental clarity · acuity
senilityyouth
State of being immature
childhood · infancy · adolescence · juvenility · young age