Word.ws English Dictionary

blind leading the blind

blind leading the blind phrase: a situation in which an unqualified person is attempting to guide, advise, or train others.

blind leading the blind: a situation in which an unqualified person is attempting to guide, advise, or train others
Image: Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Phrase

the blind leading the blind

  1. (idiomatic) A situation in which an unqualified person is attempting to guide, advise, or train others.
    • Grandma teaching you to drive is like the blind leading the blind.
    • "The Lord preserve us from evil times. . . . Without his grace, we are the blind leading the blind."1843, James Fenimore Cooper, “5:”, in Wyandotte

Origin of blind leading the blind

The concept is ancient, found in several cultures. It occurs in the Upanishads, written between 800 BCE and 200 BCE: : Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind. — Katha Upanishad A similar expression exists in the Buddhist Pali Canon, composed in North India, and preserved orally until it was committed to writing during the Fourth Buddhist Council in Sri Lanka in 29 BCE, and in the works of Horace, a leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (27 BCE – 14 CE), who wrote of caecus caeco dux (“the blind leader of the blind”). The saying also appears in the King James Version of the Bible (1611), Gospel of Matthew, 15:14: : Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Questions about blind leading the blind

What does blind leading the blind mean?
Blind leading the blind means a situation in which an unqualified person is attempting to guide, advise, or train others.
What part of speech is blind leading the blind?
Blind leading the blind is a phrase.

Words near blind leading the blind in the dictionary

  1. Blind Hookey
  2. blind item
  3. blind items
  4. blind lantern
  5. blind lanterns
  6. blind leading the blind
  7. blind level
  8. blind levels
  9. blind loop syndrome
  10. blind man's bluff
  11. blind man's buff

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blind leading the blind (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-blind leading the blind.ogg.

Cite this entry: “blind leading the blind.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blind_leading_the_blind. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.