Word.ws English Dictionary

fool

/fuːl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/fʉwl/

fool noun: a person with poor judgment or little intelligence.

Noun (1)

fool (plural fools)

  1. (derogatory) A person with poor judgment or little intelligence.
    • You were a fool to cross that busy road without looking.
    • The village fool threw his own shoes down the well.
  2. (historical) A jester; a person whose role was to entertain a sovereign and the court (or lower personages).
    • This court fool could say bright things on occasion, but his main use to the ladies and lords of the palace was to serve as victim to practical jokes, cruel, coarse, and vulgar enough to be appreciated perhaps in the Bowery.1896, Frederick Peterson IN Popular Science Monthly Volume 50 December 1896 , Idiots Savants
    Synonyms:
    jester, joker
  3. A stock character typified by unintelligence, naïveté or lucklessness, usually as a form of comic relief; often used as a source of insight or pathos for the audience, as such characters are generally less bound by social expectations.
  4. Someone who has been made a fool of or tricked; dupe.
    • Such clouds of nameless trouble cross
      ⁠All night below the darken’d eyes;
      ⁠With morning wakes the will, and cries,
      ‘Thou shalt not be the fool of loss.’1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto IV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    dupe, mark, goat
  5. (informal) Someone who derives pleasure from something specified.
    • Can they think me […] their fool or jester?1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC
    • I'm a fool for the city.1975, Foghat, "Fool for the City" (song), Fool for the City (album)
    Synonyms:
    fan
  6. (slang, chiefly African-American Vernacular) An informal greeting akin to buddy, dude, or man.
    • Upon opening the door, Trech was suddenly drawn aback by the shocking presence of the armed goon standing directly in front of him. “Yo, what up fool? […]”2010, G.C. Deuce, From the Gutter to the Grave: An American Hood Novel, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 291
    • “What up, fool?” he finally responded. “Not too much; fell asleep watching your boys get their asses kicked,” I told him, referring to the Carolina Cougars, the last team he played for before he got sick.2012, Peron Long, Livin' Ain't Easy, Urban Books, →ISBN
  7. (often capitalized Fool) A particular card in a tarot deck, representing a jester.

Verb

fool (third-person singular simple present fools, present participle fooling, simple past and past participle fooled)

  1. (transitive) To trick; to deceive.
    • She bit it gently and found that it resembled a worm in no way whatsoever as to taste although because it was long and slender, a Little Red Hen might easily be fooled by its appearance.1918, Florence White Williams, The Little Red Hen
    • There appears to be no process of gradually fooling oneself while degrading standards so characteristic of the Solid Rocket Booster or Space Shuttle Main Engine safety systems.1986 June 6, Richard Feynman, “Personal observations on the reliability of the Shuttle”, in Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, Report to the President
  2. (intransitive) To act in an idiotic manner; to act foolishly.
    • 1681/1682, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar
      Is this a time for fooling?
    • She's always complaining that she got stuck with the worst possible committee. And that me and Jimmy fool more than we work.1972, Judy Blume, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, page 56
  3. (archaic) To make a fool of; to make act the fool.
    • They fool me to the top of my bent.c. 1599 to 1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, III.ii.384

Adjective

fool (comparative fooler or more fool, superlative foolest or most fool)

  1. (informal) Foolish.
    • Of all the fool, fruitless jobs, making anything of a creature that begins by deceiving her, is the foolest a sane woman ever undertook.1909, Gene Stratton-Porter, A Girl of the Limberlost
    • That was a fool thing to do. You could have gotten yourself shot2011, Gayle Kaye, Sheriff Takes a Bride

Noun (2)

fool (plural fools)

  1. A type of dessert made of puréed fruit and custard or cream.
    • an apricot fool; a gooseberry fool
    • Eton is renowned for its "messes," and "strawberry mess" is Empress of them all, with raspberry mess as a very good second. It does not at all convey the joys of a "mess" to say that it consists of iced fruit and cream, and somewhat resembles a "fool." It is a thing apart, and should be approached...1913, Pearson's Magazine, volume 36, part 2, page 373
    Synonyms:
    dupe

Proper noun capitalized: Fool

Fool

  1. A surname.
  2. Alternative letter-case form of fool (“a particular card in a tarot deck, representing a jester”).

fool meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

fool in Hindi

person with poor judgement or little intelligence
मूर्ख mūrkh

fool in Tamil

person with poor judgement or little intelligence
முட்டாள் muṭṭāḷ
to trick; to make a fool of someone
ஏமாற்று ēmāṟṟu

fool in Urdu

person with poor judgement or little intelligence
مورکھ mūrkh

fool in Bengali

person with poor judgement or little intelligence
মূর্খ murkho, উন্দা বুন্দা unda bunda, বোকা bōka
More languagesFewer languages
fool in Telugu
మూర్ఖుడు
fool in Gujarati
મૂર્ખ mūrkh, મૂરખ mūrakh, ચોદુ codu
fool in Sanskrit
दुर्मति durmati
fool in Sinhala
මෝඩයා mōḍayā, මැට්ටා mæṭṭā
fool in Arabic
مُغَفَّل muḡaffal, أَحْمَق ʔaḥmaq, سَفِيه safīh
fool in Malay
bodoh
fool in Indonesian
bego, tolol
fool in Persian
احمق ahmaq, خنگ xeng, ابله ablah
fool in Thai
คนโง่ kon-ngôo, ตุ่น dtùn, ควาย kwaai
fool in Vietnamese
thằng ngu, kẻ ngốc, trò đùa
fool in Myanmar
ဗာလ bala.

Examples of fool in a sentence

  • No man is always a fool, every man is sometimes.1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson...
  • 'If I coloured at all, Mr Edward,' said Joe, 'which I didn't know I did, it was to think I should have been such a fool as ever to have any hope of her.1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 13.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […]...
  • “What’s up fool?” Mark says while dapping Fame up.2014, Hitta Lo, Bracing Season I, Kaleidoscopic Publishing, →ISBN:
  • “What up fool?” Lil Slim said noticing the seriousness in Lil Kilo’s voice.2018, Keith L. Bell, Drought Season Over: The Sequel, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN:

Synonyms of fool

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of fool

Forms of fool

Noun
pluralfools
Verb
third-person singular presentfools
present participlefooling
past participlefooled
pastfooled
Adjective
comparativefooler
comparativemore fool
superlativefoolest
superlativemost fool

Origin of fool

From Middle English fol (“fool”), from Old French fol (cf. modern French fou (“mad”)) from Latin follis. Doublet of fals and follis. Displaced native Old English dwæs.

From French fouler (“to trample”).

Words formed from fool

Phrases with fool

29 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with fool

42 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about fool

What does fool mean?
Fool means a person with poor judgment or little intelligence.
What is fool in Hindi?
Fool in Hindi is मूर्ख (mūrkh). See Fool meaning in Hindi.
How do you use fool in a sentence?
No man is always a fool, every man is sometimes.
What part of speech is fool?
Fool can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce fool?
Fool is pronounced /fuːl/ (UK).
What is the plural of fool?
The plural of fool is fools.

Words near fool in the dictionary

  1. fooked
  2. Fookien
  3. fookin'
  4. fooking
  5. fooks
  6. fool
  7. fool about
  8. fool along
  9. fool around
  10. fool away
  11. fool duck

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fool (page history and authors); Fool (page history and authors); fool (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fool.wav.

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