idiot

American  

[id-ee-uht] / ˈɪd i ət /

noun

• idiots
  plural

1. 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!

   Synonyms:

   numbskull, dunce, dolt, imbecile, half-wit, fool

2. 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.

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idiot British  

/ ˈɪdɪət /

noun

1. a person with severe mental retardation

2. a foolish or senseless person

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• idiotic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• idiots
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

idiot idiots

“I would be an idiot not to walk away from her and let her flourish in her career,” he continued.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

The tornado that transported Dorothy Gale from dusty Kansas to vibrant Oz might have swept up the village idiot instead.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

"People understood very quickly that an idiot was driving and they fled."

From Barron's ● May 4, 2026

“I’ll be an idiot if I stay with them.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026

“How do you know what I’m thinking? I’m an idiot, remember? I don’t think that much.”

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff

This space has been littered with criticism of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and other local legends who occasionally acted like idiots.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026

"We are big idiots really, but there isn't enough opportunity for us to be around each other and show that in a safe space where we can really let our hair down," he added.

From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026

"They are not idiots - they know that social media will film and amplify these videos for them and and they have made sure the response looks national."

From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2026

When useful idiots play along, the hypocrisy is double: Perpetrators pretend to be humane, and apologists pretend to believe them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026

But my job is to protect you girls from those kinds of idiots.

From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins

Related Words

• fool
• moron
• nitwit
• twit