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
- idiotic adjective
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
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.
When useful idiots play along, the hypocrisy is double: Perpetrators pretend to be humane, and apologists pretend to believe them.
As if the boy were some kind of idiot!
From Literature
Sometimes I was convinced she did, but there were moments when I felt like an idiot just imagining things.
From Literature
He heard, understood, bent to the water of the lochan—but she cried, “Not water, idiot! It’s a kludde! Earth—wet earth!”
From Literature
"I felt like such an idiot and it was humiliating."
From BBC
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.
