stupid
Americanadjective
-
stupider,
comparative
-
stupidest
superlative
-
lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; slow-witted.
-
characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless.
Sorry for asking a stupid question, but why is the answer four instead of five?
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tediously boring, especially due to lack of meaning or sense; inane; pointless.
He wished he'd never come to such a stupid party.
-
annoying or irritating; troublesome.
Turn off that stupid radio.
-
in a state of stupor; stupefied.
After a twelve-hour work day, she was stupid from fatigue.
noun
adjective
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lacking in common sense, perception, or normal intelligence
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(usually postpositive) stunned, dazed, or stupefied
stupid from lack of sleep
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having dull mental responses; slow-witted
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trivial, silly, or frivolous
noun
Usage
What are other ways to say stupid? The adjective stupid describes things characterized or proceeding from mental dullness. Do you know when to use stupid, fatuous, silly, inane, foolish, and asinine? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Commonly Confused
Stupid, ignorant, and unintelligent are all used to refer to people or things that seem to show a lack of mental resources. Stupid is the most general and most insulting term, and can describe someone lacking in intelligence, wisdom, prudence, or mental quickness. Unintelligent refers to people or things that are lacking in capacity for learning, reasoning, or understanding. Ignorant, by contrast, generally means lacking in knowledge (not necessarily lacking in intelligence).
Synonym Usage
See dull.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of stupid
First recorded in 1535–45; from Latin stupidus, equivalent to stup(ēre) “to be numb, to be stunned” + -idus -id 4 ( def. )
Explanation
A stupid person doesn’t have much intelligence or imagination, and they go through life making decisions that seem to lack all common sense. If you’ve got a brain but you don’t use it, you might be a bit stupid. The word comes from a Latin adjective that means “amazed or stunned,” and stupid people are stunned by everything because their minds are numb. You can make a stupid mistake when you’re not thinking, and you can call someone stupid if you’re feeling cruel, like “Hey, Stupid.” Zombies are stupid because their brains are dead. If that makes sense to you, then you’re not stupid, and you’re also not a zombie. Well done!
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.
See Examples For:
But on Monday, a federal district court judge in Massachusetts postponed the effective date on the grounds that—and I am paraphrasing here—the rule is mind-bendingly stupid and would create a needless, self-inflicted economic catastrophe.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
"I've said some stupid things, but sometimes you have to shake the internet to get noticed," he testified about his online statements, according to CBS.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
For the first half-hour or so I was reflexively covering the brake pedal at intersections and merging lanes, ready to engage if the super-intelligence at the wheel did something stupid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
I know that sounds very obvious and stupid, but it’s true.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Two stupid letters—thirteen stupid words, total—and I’m freaking out?
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
“I was a bit stupider back then,” he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
That’s begun to happen, though in a stupider way than we’d predicted.
From Slate ● Apr. 5, 2025
“When they need to make stupid stupider, they send me up. I’m part comedian, I’m part activist, I’m part artist. I just want a better society,” Stevens said.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 16, 2024
Other news reports more definitively declared that, yes, ChatGPT is becoming stupider.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 2, 2023
Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.
From "The Magician's Nephew" by C. S. Lewis
“I thought it was the stupidest idea,” said actress Mink Stole, who appeared in all of Waters’s feature films.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
He said: "We send Uganda money to plant trees as well, because we won that competition, who can find the stupidest use of taxpayers' money"
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
Some pundits might be calling it “the most important chart in the world,” Perkins said, but in reality, it is closer to “the stupidest chart in the world.”
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2025
That’s “completely bogus,” writes TS Lombard Managing Director Dario Perkins, who calls it “the stupidest chart in the world.”
From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2025
It’s the wing of a tame turkey, the stupidest bird in the world, so stupid it can’t even fly any more.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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.
