dumb terminal - technical definition

Also known as a thin client. A data terminal that does no independent processing, but relies on the computational resources of a computer to which it is connected over a dedicated circuit or through a network. Essentially an input/output (I/O) device with no internal processing power, a dumb terminal is a simple input-output device comprising a keyboard, monitor, network interface, and buffer memory that has only enough intelligence to respond to simple control codes from a computer. See also computer, terminal, and thin client.