Word.ws English Dictionary

ship of fools

ship of fools noun: a country or organization that is poorly run by leaders who lack the expertise to cope with the problems that arise and equally inexpert subjects or members who attempt to influence those leaders.

Noun

ship of fools (plural ships of fools)

  1. A country or organization that is poorly run by leaders who lack the expertise to cope with the problems that arise and equally inexpert subjects or members who attempt to influence those leaders.
    • Don’t tell us you need us, / ‘cause we’re the ship of fools; / looking for America, / coming through your schools!1985 September 10, “We Built This City”, in Knee Deep In The Hoopla, performed by Starship
    • On the edge of oblivion / and all the world is Babylon; / and all the love, and everyone: / a ship of fools, sailing on.1986 October 14, “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”, in Mosaic, performed by Wang Chung

Forms of ship of fools

pluralships of fools

Origin of ship of fools

From ship + of + fools, a calque of German Narrenschiff. From a German poem named "Narrenschiff", published in 1494 by Sebastian Brant, about a ship carrying 112 passengers, each of whom represents a specific human foible, which sails into oblivion. The poem was translated into English in 1509 by Alexander Barclay. Brant may have been inspired by an allegory that first appeared in Book VI of Plato's Republic, about a ship with a dysfunctional crew.

Questions about ship of fools

What does ship of fools mean?
Ship of fools means a country or organization that is poorly run by leaders who lack the expertise to cope with the problems that arise and equally inexpert subjects or members who attempt to influence those leaders.
What part of speech is ship of fools?
Ship of fools is a noun.
What is the plural of ship of fools?
The plural of ship of fools is ships of fools.

Words near ship of fools in the dictionary

  1. ship model basin
  2. ship model basins
  3. ship money
  4. ship moneys
  5. ship monies
  6. ship of fools
  7. ship of state
  8. ship of the desert
  9. ship of the line
  10. ship of the line captain
  11. ship of the line ensign

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ship of fools (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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