simpleton
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of simpleton
Explanation
A simpleton is an idiot — a person without much common sense or intelligence. This is one of many words — such as moron, dummy, and dimwit — that insult a person's intelligence. A simpleton is the opposite of a genius. However, the word simple implies more than lack of intelligence; it suggests being innocent or naive too. So a simpleton could be considered a hillbilly or yokel as well as a dullard or dunce.
Vocabulary lists containing simpleton
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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One for the Murphys
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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Simpletons show us, that a body can get along almost without a soul; but of a soul getting along without a body, we have no tangible and indisputable proof.
From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II by Melville, Herman
Simpletons was the last thing we had thought ourselves.
From Hira Singh : when India came to fight in Flanders by Mundy, Talbot
Began as "The Simpletons"; then changed its title to "Hearts Insurgent."
From Essays on Modern Novelists by Phelps, William Lyon
I’m a philosopher in the School for Making Simpletons.
From The Strollers by Fisher, Harrison
The Simpletons overwhelm Starodúm with stupid courtesies, and Mrs. S. gets Právdin to examine Mitrofán, in order to prove to Starodúm that her darling child is fit to be Sophia's husband.
From A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections by Hapgood, Isabel Florence
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
