idiot

American  

[id-ee-uht] / ˈɪd i ət /

noun

• idiots
  plural

1. Informal. an utterly foolish or senseless person.

   If you think you can wear that outfit to a job interview and get hired, you're an idiot!

   Synonyms:

   numbskull, dunce, dolt, imbecile, half-wit, fool

2. Psychology. (no longer in technical use; considered offensive) a person of the lowest order in a former and discarded classification of intellectual disability, having a mental age of less than three years old and an intelligence quotient under 25.

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idiot British  

/ ˈɪdɪət /

noun

1. a person with severe mental retardation

2. a foolish or senseless person

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• idiotic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• idiots
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of idiot

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Latin idiōta, from Greek idiṓtēs “private person, layman, person lacking skill or expertise,” equivalent to idiō- (lengthened variant of idio- idio-, perhaps by analogy with stratiōtēs “professional soldier,” derivative of stratiá “army”) + -tēs agent noun suffix

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Explanation

An idiot is someone who does foolish things. If you take your little brother's dinosaur lunchbox to school instead of your own brown-bag lunch, you might feel like an idiot. But don't be too hard on yourself — we all make mistakes. The word idiot originated in the 1300s, from the Old French word idiote, which meant "person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning." Today, though, idiot describes anyone who does foolish things, especially things that inconvenience others. If you put the Thanksgiving turkey in the oven but forget to turn it on, in four hours, you'll have a cold turkey and a bunch of relatives calling you an idiot.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

idiot idiots

Myshkin is far from being the idiot he is often made out to be.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Navarro said that Panama wants to reform the consensus-based rules that allow "one idiot" to block agreement at the COP summits, proposing instead that decisions are taken by a majority.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026

It might just sound like a new way to call someone an idiot, but the NPC label has much deeper, scarier implications.

From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2026

No one—no reporter, operative, commentator, analyst, or person on the street—wants to look like an idiot by overhyping it again.

From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2026

Lately, I was feeling just this side of a drooling idiot.

From "Lawn Boy Returns" by Gary Paulsen

Hurd had been tennis buddies with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who publicly criticized HP’s decision as “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

"I can't believe he's working in schools but to be honest he probably just wanted to get away from us idiots," he laughs.

From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026

Oh my God, I wish we put that much thought into it but no, we’re idiots.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026

"They are not idiots - they know that social media will film and amplify these videos for them and and they have made sure the response looks national."

From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2026

Especially idiots who wear superhero costumes that don’t fit and rubber masks that only have one small hole to breathe through.

From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya

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Related Words

• fool
• moron
• nitwit
• twit

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