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

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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

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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

It might just sound like a new way to call someone an idiot, but the NPC label has much deeper, scarier implications.

From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2026

No one—no reporter, operative, commentator, analyst, or person on the street—wants to look like an idiot by overhyping it again.

From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2026

"This isn't me and worse, this cheap imitation is a soulless idiot."

From Barron's ● Sep. 14, 2026

"I hope that my legacy in wrestling was I was a bit of an idiot but I had a heart of gold," he says.

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

He rolls his eyes dramatically, sending his idiot goons into hysterics.

From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh

But Hull will go into this thinking if they can go back-to-back then what a start that is because they've been written off by idiots like myself.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 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

Oh my God, I wish we put that much thought into it but no, we’re idiots.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 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

Hoppy doesn’t call us idiots and if you ask a question he doesn’t go into a rage.

From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt

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Related Words

• fool
• moron
• nitwit
• twit

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