buffoon
/bəˈfuːn/
buffoon noun: one who performs in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool.
Noun
buffoon (plural buffoons)
- One who performs in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool.
- To divert the audience with buffoon postures and antic dances.1810, W. Melmoth, transl., Letters of Pliny
- An unintentionally ridiculous person.
Verb
buffoon (third-person singular simple present buffoons, present participle buffooning, simple past and past participle buffooned)
- To behave like a buffoon
- His mimicry of gay speech and facial expressions is analogous to an Amos 'n' Andy routine, in which white men buffooned their way through incredibly demeaning impersonations of black men.1988 January 22, Henry Sheehan, “Little Boy Blue”, in Chicago Reader
buffoon meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
buffoon in Hindi
- one who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion
- मसख़रा masxarā, भाँड bhā̃ḍ
buffoon in Tamil
- கோமாளி
buffoon in Urdu
- one who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion
- مَسْخَرَہ masxara, مَسْخَرا masxarā, بھانْڈ bhānḍ
buffoon in Bengali
- ভাঁড়, হাস্যকর ব্যক্তি
More languagesFewer languages
- buffoon in Telugu
- కోణంగి kōṇaṅgi
- buffoon in Malayalam
- കോമാളി, മന്നൻ, മടയൻ, വിഡ്ഢി
- buffoon in Kannada
- ಕೋಡಂಗಿ, ಕೋಡಗಿ, ಕೋಡಿಂಗ, ಕೋಡಿಗ
- buffoon in Arabic
- مُهَرِّج muharrij
Examples of buffoon in a sentence
- The 50-year-old steel worker said he had meant to type Sawyers should win the "buffoon d'Or".
- The sylvans who guarded the palace were bearded buffoons, lazy and stupid but fierce.
- I personally like the acronym LGBTCIA. some deranged vatnyk buffoon called me it on tumblr and I thought it was funny.
Forms of buffoon
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | buffoons |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | buffoons |
| present participle | buffooning |
| past participle | buffooned |
| past | buffooned |
Origin of buffoon
From Middle French bouffon, from Italian buffone (“jester”), from buffare (“to puff out the cheeks”), of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Middle High German buffen ("to puff"; > German büffen), Old English pyffan (“to breathe out, blow with the mouth”). More at English puff.
Words formed from buffoon
Words that rhyme with buffoon
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- croon
- blue moon
- boon
- monsoon
- noon
- pontoon
- raccoon
- tribune
- attune
- dragoon
- hoon
- immune
- picayune
- platoon
- soon
- swoon
- tycoon
- afternoon
- baboon
- commune
- doubloon
- harpoon
- jejune
- pantaloon
- picaroon
- shalloon
- bassoon
- cocoon
- dabloon
- entune
- gadroon
- hewn
- impugn
- jargoon
- june
- lacune
- last chance saloon
- lune
- macaroon
- man in the moon
- maroon
- poon
- puccoon
- ratoon
- scone
- toon
- trial balloon
- troon
Questions about buffoon
- What does buffoon mean?
- Buffoon means one who performs in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool.
- What is buffoon in Hindi?
- Buffoon in Hindi is मसख़रा (masxarā), भाँड (bhā̃ḍ). See Buffoon meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is buffoon?
- Buffoon can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce buffoon?
- Buffoon is pronounced /bəˈfuːn/.
- What is the plural of buffoon?
- The plural of buffoon is buffoons.
Words near buffoon in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: buffoon (page history and authors); buffoon (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); buffoon (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); కోణంగి (Telugu) (page history and authors); buffoon (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); buffoon (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-buffoon.ogg.
Cite this entry: “buffoon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/buffoon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.