dunce
Americannoun
-
dunces
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dunce
1520–30; after John Duns Scotus, whose writings were attacked by the humanists as foolish
Explanation
A dunce is a dummy — someone who isn't smart. You might be tempted to call your little brother a dunce when he walks out the door with his shoes on the wrong feet. It's not nice to call someone a dunce, though you might call yourself one when you study the wrong chapter before a big history test or get pulled over for yet another speeding ticket. The word dunce comes from a thirteenth century Scottish philosopher, John Duns Scotus, whose resistance to new ideas and mystical beliefs inspired opponents to equate his followers, the "Duns disciples," to "dullards." Later, some teachers made children wear pointed paper "dunce caps" when they misbehaved.
Vocabulary lists containing dunce
"Marriage is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe
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Eleven
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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.
See Examples For:
If you do think that he could, please step forward and claim your complimentary dunce cap, and infuse it with your own naivete.
From Salon ● May 5, 2023
Recall children in dunce caps, perjurers in pillories, adulterers branded with scarlet letters.
From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2022
Come December, the predictor will either be wearing a dunce cap or a genius cap.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2021
No word on whether a dunce cap has been issued.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 11, 2021
A funnel of mosquitoes, like an inverted dunce cap, whined over her head.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
People who say L.A. has no seasons are unobservant dunces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2021
The internet abets the problem, he says: Unfiltered by editors, it levels the playing field between experts and "dunces."
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 2, 2020
“That’s not a strategy I agree with either, by the way,” she said — because kids at the bottom may be made to feel, in front of the whole school, like dunces.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 29, 2019
Later, in medieval England, people cracked jokes about the dunces who lived in the village of Gotham.
From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2014
“Okay, then, us two dunces are going to find a way out of this place.”
From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
