stupid
Americanadjective
-
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?
-
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
-
lacking in common sense, perception, or normal intelligence
-
(usually postpositive) stunned, dazed, or stupefied
stupid from lack of sleep
-
having dull mental responses; slow-witted
-
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).
Related Words
See dull.
Other Word Forms
- stupidly adverb
- stupidness noun
- unstupid adjective
- unstupidly adverb
- unstupidness noun
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. )
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.
That anecdote tells you a great deal about This Music May Contain Hope, a concept album about overcoming heartbreak and self-doubt and internet trolls and stupid men.
From BBC
Batteries are considered “a very stupid industry in the U.S.,” he added.
CEOs and billionaires don’t worry that people will think they’re stupid because of their poor composition.
"It was like that lightbulb moment, I felt sort of vulnerable and a bit stupid," she said.
From BBC
“Here’s my best idea. Don’t do anything stupid,” Smead said, adding that instead of big tech he likes energy stocks, where he expects a wave of consolidation.
From Barron's
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.
