A person shall be deemed to be deaf if he/she has lost 60 decibels or more in the better ear in the conversational range of frequencies
Unable to hear A deaf character suffers a 4 penalty to initiative, automatically fails Listen skill checks, and has a 20% chance of spell failure when casting spells with verbal components Characters who have been deaf from birth or childhood may grow accustomed to these drawbacks and even learn to overcome some of them (DMs discretion)
(usually followed by `to') unwilling or refusing to pay heed; "deaf to her warnings"
disapproval If you say that someone is deaf to people's requests, arguments, or criticisms, you are criticizing them because they refuse to pay attention to them. The provincial assembly were deaf to all pleas for financial help. = impervious
A hearing loss so severe that speech cannot be understood aurally, even with a hearing aid; some sounds may still be perceived
- A person with hearing loss of such severity that communication and learning is primarily by visual methods (i e , manual communication, writing, speechreading, and gestures)
people who have severe hearing impairments; "many of the deaf use sign language" lacking or deprive of the sense of hearing wholly or in part
A term that describes a degree of hearing loss, usually at least a severe to profound loss Also has cultural connotations; a hard of hearing person may call themselves deaf even if their hearing loss is not that severe See also Deaf Culture
Unwilling to hear or listen; determinedly inattentive; regardless; not to be persuaded as to facts, argument, or exhortation; with to; as, deaf to reason
Webster's New World Dictionary College Edition defines deaf as totally or partially unable to hear It generally refers to people who usually have little or no useful residual hearing and who employ sign language as their primary mode of communication Deaf people may also use speech reading, hearing aids, and other assistive technology to aid communication People who are deaf can be categorized into two groups: congenitally deaf (those who were born deaf) and adventitiously deaf (those who were born with hearing but whose sense of hearing became nonfunctional later in life)