Word.ws English Dictionary

foolish

/ˈfuː.lɪʃ/

foolish adjective: lacking good sense or judgement as a general trait; unwise; stupid.

Adjective

foolish (comparative more foolish, superlative most foolish)

  1. Lacking good sense or judgement as a general trait; unwise; stupid.
    • His wife and the neighbours lamented over his strange conduct, his dullness and melancholy, and began to think that he was grown foolish.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 318
    • Next season will, as ever, be a different matter, another problem for Conte to solve as he looks to extend his personal record of four straight league titles in club football across England and Italy. Given his hunger for more – more time, more detail, more work – only the brave or the foolish...2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in the Guardian
  2. (usually, decision, system) Not based on good sense or judgement; as a fool would do or conclude.
    • As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, but I would not go out of my way to protest against it. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. I would very gladly make mine over to him if I could.1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC
  3. Resembling or characteristic of a fool.

foolish meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

foolish in Hindi

lacking good sense or judgement; unwise
मूर्ख mūrkh

foolish in Tamil

முட்டாள்தனமான, கூறுகெட்ட

foolish in Marathi

foolish, idiotic
खुळा khuḷā

foolish in Urdu

lacking good sense or judgement; unwise
مورکھ mūrkh
More languagesFewer languages
foolish in Bengali
মূর্খ murkho
foolish in Telugu
మూర్ఖ mūrkha, పిచ్చి picci
foolish in Malayalam
മൂർഖൻ mūṟkhaṉ
foolish in Kannada
ಮೂಢ mūḍha, ಎಬಡ ebaḍa
foolish in Punjabi
ਮੂਰਖ mūrakha, ਗੋਲਾ golā, ਜਾਹਲ jāhal
foolish in Gujarati
બેવકૂફ bevakūph
foolish in Sanskrit
मूर्ख mūrkhá, मूर mūrá, अज्ञ ajña, पर्युषित paryuṣita
foolish in Arabic
أَحْمَق ʔaḥmaq, غَبِيّ ḡabiyy, سَفِيهٌ safīhun, مُغَفَّل muḡaffal
foolish in Persian
احمق ahmaq, ببو babu
foolish in Thai
โง่ ngôo
foolish in Vietnamese
dại dột
foolish in Myanmar
မိုက်မဲ muikmai:

Examples of foolish in a sentence

  • The Three Stooges are known for their lowbrow slapstick humor consisting of foolish action for the masses.
  • The butler turned off that foolish maid.
  • That was a bally foolish thing to do, old chap!

All 40 example sentences with foolish

Synonyms of foolish

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of foolish

Forms of foolish

comparativemore foolish
superlativemost foolish

Origin of foolish

From Middle English folisch; equivalent to fool + -ish.

Words formed from foolish

Phrases with foolish

Words that rhyme with foolish

Questions about foolish

What does foolish mean?
Foolish means lacking good sense or judgement as a general trait; unwise; stupid.
What is foolish in Hindi?
Foolish in Hindi is मूर्ख (mūrkh). See Foolish meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is foolish?
Foolish is an adjective.
How do you pronounce foolish?
Foolish is pronounced /ˈfuː.lɪʃ/.

Words near foolish in the dictionary

  1. fooling up
  2. fooling with
  3. foolings
  4. foolio
  5. foolios
  6. foolish
  7. foolish guillemot
  8. foolisher
  9. foolishest
  10. foolishly
  11. foolishment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foolish (page history and authors); foolish (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); खुळा (Marathi) (page history and authors); മൂർഖൻ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಎಬಡ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਗੋਲਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); બેવકૂફ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); अज्ञ (Sanskrit) (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-foolish.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-foolish.wav.

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