fool
1 Americannoun
-
a silly or stupid person; a person who lacks judgment or sense.
- Synonyms:
- sap, saphead, booby, nincompoop, ninny, dunderhead, ignoramus, numbskull, blockhead, dunce, dolt, simpleton
- Antonyms:
- genius
-
a professional jester, formerly kept by a person of royal or noble rank for amusement.
the court fool.
-
a person who has been tricked or deceived into appearing or acting silly or stupid.
to make a fool of someone.
-
an ardent enthusiast who cannot resist an opportunity to indulge an enthusiasm.
He's just a dancing fool.
-
a weak-minded or idiotic person.
verb (used with object)
-
fools,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fooled,
past participle, past
-
fooling
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
fools,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fooled,
past participle, past
-
fooling
present participle
-
to act like a fool; joke; play.
-
to jest; pretend; make believe.
I was only fooling.
verb phrase
-
fool away to spend foolishly, as time or money; squander.
to fool away the entire afternoon.
-
fool around (with)
-
to putter aimlessly; waste time.
She fooled around all through school.
I fooled around with painting for a bit, but never got anywhere with it.
-
Also fool with to handle or play with idly or carelessly.
She was hurt while fooling around with a loaded gun.
It's unkind to fool with someone's affections.
-
to flirt or have casual sexual encounters.
You should know better than to fool around with someone you work with.
They're just fooling around–I don't think the relationship is going to go anywhere.
-
to be sexually promiscuous, especially to engage in adultery.
He's out fooling around while she's at home sick with the flu.
-
idioms
noun
noun
-
a person who lacks sense or judgement
-
a person who is made to appear ridiculous
-
(formerly) a professional jester living in a royal or noble household
-
obsolete an idiot or imbecile
the village fool
-
to play the fool or behave irritatingly
-
a wise or sensible person
-
to deliberately act foolishly; indulge in buffoonery
verb
-
(tr) to deceive (someone), esp in order to make him or her look ridiculous
-
informal (intr; foll by with, around with, or about with) to act or play (with) irresponsibly or aimlessly
to fool around with a woman
-
(intr) to speak or act in a playful, teasing, or jesting manner
-
to squander; fritter
he fooled away a fortune
-
to move or proceed in a leisurely way
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
foolsimple
-
foolssimple
-
have fooledperfect
-
has fooledperfect
-
am foolingprogressive
-
are foolingprogressive
-
is foolingprogressive
-
have been foolingperfect progressive
-
has been foolingperfect progressive
Past
-
fooledsimple
-
had fooledperfect
-
was foolingprogressive
-
were foolingprogressive
-
had been foolingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fool1
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English fol, fool, from Old French fol, from Latin follis “bellows, bag”; cf. follis
Origin of fool2
First recorded in 1590–1600; probably special use of fool 1; cf. trifle ( def. ) (in the sense “a dessert consisting of custard and cake”
Explanation
In the Middle Ages, a fool was a clown or jester. Today, fools are simply silly people who clown around or lack common sense. The original fools were clowns hired by the king for entertainment. They were actually witty and smart, but today's fools are not. When you call someone a fool, you either mean he's gullible or just a run-of-the-mill idiot. To fool also means to play a trick or hoax on someone, and fooling around is carelessly spending time on something silly. If someone doesn't believe something you said, you might defend yourself by saying, "I'm not fooling!"
Vocabulary lists containing fool
April Vocabulary Words
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"Sonnet 116"
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
But he cautioned that no system was fool proof, and that some women's support groups have in the past voiced concern that such systems might give a false sense of security.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
I feel as though I’ve spent much of my summer taking shots at “Obsession” gussying up its thin characterizations to fool people into thinking it’s anything more than your standard horror sludge.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
And also — and I hate to sound like I’m some bitter old fool, but I am — we’ve done it a long time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
OpenAI’s move is welcome news for parents who feel overwhelmed by trying to oversee everything their kids are doing online—especially if ChatGPT for Teens is as hard to fool as the company says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
“Folks said Pa was a fool for not going north. ‘Northerners won the Civil War,’ Sukie, his best friend, the blacksmith, said.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
All of the king’s men were experienced soldiers; none were fools or the moronic redcoats so often caricatured in American mythology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
"We are being made to look like fools," he added on X.
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
“Tony doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and he won’t play along with the kind of thing where you hang out with the right industry people,” says Hues.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2026
Such reasoning can become textbook Greater Fool Theory — investors paying foolish prices with the expectation that greater fools than they will pay even higher prices.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 6, 2026
Their enemies, he explained, were fools who made more runs than any properly organized warren needed.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
He aimed to fool people into seeing a machine as humanlike—now sometimes called the Eliza effect—and then show them how they’d been fooled.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Don't be fooled by the number nine he wore on his back for Switzerland at the World Cup - he generally plays a lot deeper than that.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Because being fooled once is a shame; being fooled twice — that’s moronic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
It’s usually used to suggest traders may be fooled by a relatively small retracement of a big market dive.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026
“She will not be fooled as easily as Sciron.”
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
It’s a disguise “Obsession” wears so well that it’s fooling people into thinking this perfectly adequate film marks the arrival of a new horror classic.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2026
Are we fooling ourselves to think our taxes matter to our moral responsibility?
From Slate ● May 11, 2026
“If a high number of those children are not getting the follow-up care, we may just be fooling ourselves and checking a box,” Chung said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2026
So Théodore started an account on X, formerly known as Twitter, called "Insane AI Slop" and started calling out and poking fun at the content he came across that was fooling people.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2026
The usual way this happened was that the teacher on playground duty inspected the lines, told off anyone who was talking or fooling around, and dismissed the classes one at a time.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
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.
