folly
Syllables: fol·lyUK/ˈfɒli/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈfɔlɪj/
folly noun: foolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicality.
Noun (1)
folly (countable and uncountable, plural follies)
- Foolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicality.
- It would be folly to walk all that way, knowing the shops are probably shut by now.
- With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.1927 August, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “[Ariel Poems.] Journey of the Magi.”, in Collected Poems 1909–1935, London: Faber & Faber […], published September 1954, →OCLC, page 107
- Thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence.
- The purchase of Alaska from Russia was termed Seward's folly.
- '[…] The treachery, or the folly, of my cousin's maid betrayed us. I was banished to the house of a relation far distant, and she was allowed no liberty, no society, no amusement, till my father's point was gained […]'1811, [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC
- A fanciful building built for purely ornamental reasons.
- A luncheonette in the shape of a coffee cup is particularly conspicuous, as is intended of an architectural duck or folly.
- “The Villa Straylight,” said a jeweled thing on the pedestal, in a voice like music, “is a body grown in upon itself, a Gothic folly. […]”1984, William Gibson, chapter 14, in Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 172
Verb
folly (third-person singular simple present follies, present participle follying, simple past and past participle follied)
- To follow.
- [T]hey druv the cow afore thim, the dog follied; but the cat, uv coorse, was lift behind: an' the other three childer wint along the road, pickin' haves and blackberries; for it was a fine day towst the latther ind uv harvist.1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 526
- "You got any money?" he said to me. ¶ "Hell no, maybe enough for a pint of whisky till I get to Denver. What about you?" ¶ "I know where I can get some." ¶ "Where?" "Anywhere. You can always folly a man down an alley, can't you?"1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, London: Penguin Books, published 1976, →ISBN, page 23
Noun (2)
folly (plural follies)
- A clump of trees, particularly one on the crest of a hill (or sometimes on a stretch of open ground).
- 'Every hill seems to have a Folly' [...] 'I mean a clump of trees on the top.'1880, Richard Jeffries, Greene Ferne Farm, page vi
- Folly Beach, the next island to the south (batik 3.7), bears the name given it by mariners, who looked for the island's tree-crested dune ridge, a volley or folly of trees, as a navigation guide [...] Probably a lot of East Coast islands bore the temporary name of Folly Beach.2003, Orrin H. Pilkey, Mary Edna Fraser, A Celebration of the World's Barrier Islands, page 69
folly meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
folly in Tamil
- அறிவிழிவு, அறியாமை, அறிவின்மை, மடமை, மூட எண்ணம், மூடப்பழக்கம்
folly in Urdu
- بےعقلی, حماقت, نادانی
folly in Bengali
- নির্বুদ্ধিতা
folly in Telugu
- folly
- దుర్మతి durmati
More languagesFewer languages
- folly in Malayalam
- അറിവില്ലായ്മ, മൂഢത, നക്ഷത്രബംഗ്ലാവ്, വിഡ്ഢിത്തം
- folly in Kannada
- ಕುರಿತನ, ಅವಿವೇಕ, ಮುಠ್ಠಾಳತನ, ತಿಳಿಗೇಡಿತನ
- folly in Odia
- ପାଗଳାମି pāgaḷāmi
Examples of folly in a sentence
- But the owners of Doddington Hall, in Lincolnshire, have brought the folly into the 21st century, by building a 30ft pyramid in the grounds of the Elizabethan manor.2014 September 7, “Doddington's garden pyramid is a folly good show”, in The Daily Telegraph, London:
- Howandever, at the selfsame time, there was a gang of fellas from the valley of kings follying the very same pointy star.2012, Honor Molloy, Smarty Girl: Dublin Savage, Boston, M.A.: Gemma, →ISBN, page 43:
- During the 1920s and 1930s, Folly Farms (above) [referencing a photograph of a farmhouse surrounded by large trees] was owned by Mrs.2006, Buddy Sullivan, Richmond Hill, page 52
Forms of folly
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | follies |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | follies |
| present participle | follying |
| past participle | follied |
| past | follied |
Origin of folly
Inherited from Middle English folie, from Old French folie (“madness”), from the adjective fol (“mad, insane”).
Uncertain. The most common theory is that term primarily denotes a clump of trees and relates to French feuille, feuillée and English foliage; it has also been suggested that it refers to some perceived connection or resemblance of the named place to an architectural folly, but many places so named have no architectural follies and cannot be named directly for them.
Words formed from folly
Phrases with folly
Words that rhyme with folly
Questions about folly
- What does folly mean?
- Folly means foolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicality.
- What is folly in Tamil?
- Folly in Tamil is அறிவிழிவு, அறியாமை, அறிவின்மை. See Folly meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use folly in a sentence?
- But the owners of Doddington Hall, in Lincolnshire, have brought the folly into the 21st century, by building a 30ft pyramid in the grounds of the Elizabethan manor.
- What part of speech is folly?
- Folly can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce folly?
- Folly is pronounced /ˈfɒli/ (UK).
- What is the plural of folly?
- The plural of folly is follies.
Words near folly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: folly (page history and authors); folly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); folly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); folly (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); దుర్మతి (Telugu) (page history and authors); folly (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); folly (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ପାଗଳାମି (Odia) (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-us-folly.ogg.
Cite this entry: “folly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/folly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.