foolishness

[foo-lish-nis]

noun

1. lack of wisdom or good judgment; foolish quality.

   Oh, the foolishness of thinking that wealth brings happiness!

2. foolish talk, ideas, or behavior.

   How could someone with such a clever mind as yourself talk such foolishness?

3. a foolish act, error, habit, etc..

   Shakespeare, who looks at all men as if from Mount Olympus, notes their foibles and foolishnesses, and yet smiles on them all.

Other Word Forms

• overfoolishness noun
• unfoolishness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of foolishness¹

foolish + -ness

Example Sentences

She had gambled on the family’s foolishness and self-delusion, and she had won by a length, as they say at the Derby.

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The Epstein distraction bids to be another piece of foolishness that does more to inhibit Democrats’ return to real influence than advance it.

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Mr. Clooney has never had a better role, and he burrows deeply into it with a self-interrogating combination of narcissism, foolishness, bravado and charisma.

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Observers have long shrugged off the danger with the complacent idea that students will see through their professors’ foolishness—if not right away, then when they enter the “real world.”

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On the one hand, decades of failure, foolishness and shortsighted elite greed have eroded the trust between Americans and the political and administrative mandarins.

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Related Words

• absurdity 
• bunk 
• craziness 
• folly 
• indiscretion 
• insanity 
• irrationality 
• irresponsibility www.thesaurus.com
• lunacy 
• rubbish 
• silliness 
• stupidity