SENILE Synonyms: 57 Similar and Opposite Words

senile

adjective

Definition of senile

as in elderly

showing a loss of mental ability (such as memory) in old age a senile man in his eighties Her mother is becoming senile.

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Example Sentences

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Recent Examples of senile Billy Chapman is again introduced as a child (Logan Sawyer) visiting his senile grandpa in a rest home. — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 11 Dec. 2025 The kids can’t spell and the world leaders are senile. — Literary Hub, 21 Oct. 2025 Back on the domestic front, Jeanine has reason to believe that her husband, Paul (Mark O’Brien), is having an affair with her senile mother’s caregiver. — Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Sep. 2023 Don Quixote himself is too often a senile dodderer; Daniel Rubin was creaky in body but youthfully quixotic in spirit. — Jeffrey Gantz, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Mar. 2023 See All Example Sentences for senile

Recent Examples of Synonyms for senile

Adjective

The office has already brought charges against four, including the mother of a 14-year-old boy accused of killing an elderly pedestrian while riding an e-motorcycle.

— ABC News, ABC News, 14 Aug. 2026
Now, the City of Oakland is suing the property owner, Mosser Living, alleging elderly and disabled tenants were left stranded in their homes and that the prolonged elevator outage was part of a much broader pattern of neglect.

— CBS News, CBS News, 13 Aug. 2026

Definition of elderly

Adjective

Game time is coming more regularly now for the 16-year-old, having racked up almost 50 percent of his senior career minutes since the start of May.

— Thom Harris, New York Times, 16 Aug. 2026
Shu Hsiao-huang, a senior analyst at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research, noted that Taiwan should avoid treating every unmanned aircraft as the same threat.

— Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 16 Aug. 2026