idiot
Americannoun
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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!
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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.
noun
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a person with severe mental retardation
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a foolish or senseless person
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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
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.
Vocabulary lists containing idiot
Tricky Terms for April Fool's Day
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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.
Asked by BBC Sport before the media conference what he thought of his opponent, Benn - without hesitation - replied: "Idiot."
From BBC • Feb. 25, 2025
Amidst its political and social commentary, "American Idiot" also tells a deeply personal story of love and loss.
From Salon • Sep. 21, 2024
He used to say we should change the band’s name to Idiot and the Three Geniuses.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 26, 2023
John Dickerson talks with author Elif Batuman about coming of age as a college student in the 1990’s, and the similarities between herself and her main character in Either/Or, the sequel to The Idiot.
From Slate • May 29, 2022
When it comes to fixing mechanical things, I fell somewhere into the Complete Idiot level.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
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.
