noun, Psychiatry. 1. an inability to speak, due to a physical defect, conscious refusal, or psychogenic inhibition. Origin of mutism.
1 A new study finds girls are developing breasts earlier than ever before; American boys and girls are entering puberty about five years younger than they did in 1920.
Puberty was happening earlier in most girls and again differed by race: instead of age 11, the typical age of breast development by the early 1990s was 8.87 years in African-Americans and 9.96 in white girls, researchers found.