An adjective that covers two distinct physical impairments — the inability to speak and the inability to hear — both of which figure prominently in Jesus' healing ministry. In the Gospels, the mute demoniac speaks after deliverance (Matt 9:32-33), and the deaf man with a speech impediment hears after Jesus' touch (Mark 7:32-37). Ancient Greek already carried both meanings, since 'blunted' perception could apply to either faculty. Strikingly, the multilingual evidence reveals how languages handle the ambiguity: German uses both 'stumm' (mute) and 'taub' (deaf), while French often renders both senses with 'muet,' collapsing the distinction that Greek preserves contextually.