dumbness

noun4

1. •
   (informal) The quality of being stupid or foolish.
2. •
   (offensive, old-fashioned) The state of being mute: that is, of not communicating vocally, whether from selective mutism (refusal to speak) or from an inability to speak.

   • He was a deaf-mute. His dumbness did not seem to matter when we were boys. — 1944
3. •
   (old-fashioned) Muteness, silence; abstention from speech.

   • There was speech in their dumbness. — 1610
4. •
   (old-fashioned) Show or gesture without words; pantomime; dumb-show.

   • To the dumbness of the gesture one might interpret. — 1605