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

Navarro said that Panama wants to reform the consensus-based rules that allow "one idiot" to block agreement at the COP summits, proposing instead that decisions are taken by a majority.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 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

"As the players themselves say, he's an idiot, but he's our idiot," said Saunders.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

“One idiot on one side does one thing, the other side does another,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

I must have seemed like an idiot to them, but I couldn’t grasp what was happening well enough to respond to it.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

We were talking about him on the Monday Night Club before Leeds walloped Newcastle and only idiots question whether he is the right man to move the club forward now.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Hurd had been tennis buddies with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who publicly criticized HP’s decision as “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 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

I didn’t mind, for I like ‘to see folks eat with a relish’, as Hannah says, and the poor man must have needed a deal of food after teaching idiots all day.

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

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Related Words

• fool
• moron
• nitwit
• twit

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