foolish

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfuː.lɪʃ/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -uːlɪʃ

Adjective

foolish (comparative more foolish, superlative most foolish)

1. (of a person, an action, etc.) Lacking good sense or judgement; unwise.
   • 2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     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 would bet against him.

   • 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:

     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.

2. Resembling or characteristic of a fool.

Synonyms

• absurd
• idiotic
• ridiculous
• silly
• unwise

Antonyms

• wise

Derived terms

• a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds
• foolishly
• foolishness
• penny wise and pound foolish
• pound-foolish

 

Translations

lacking good sense or judgement; unwise

• Albanian: budalla (sq)
• Arabic: أَحْمَق (ʔaḥmaq), غَبِيّ (ḡabiyy), سَفِيهٌ (safīhun), مُغَفَّل (muḡaffal)
• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: հիմար (hy) (himar), տխմար (hy) (txmar), ապուշ (hy) (apuš)
• Asturian: neciu (ast), ñeciu (ast)
• Azerbaijani: ağılsız (az), axmaq (az)
• Belarusian: дурны́ (durný)
• Bengali: মূর্খ (bn) (murkho)
• Breton: sod (br)
• Bulgarian: неразу́мен (bg) (nerazúmen), глу́пав (bg) (glúpav)
• Burmese: မိုက်မဲ (my) (muikmai:)
• Catalan: ximple (ca)
• Cherokee: ᎤᎸᏓᎴᏍᎩ (ulvdalesgi)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 傻 (so⁴), 笨 (ban⁶)

  Mandarin: 笨 (zh) (bèn), 傻 (zh) (shǎ), 蠢 (zh) (chǔn), 愚蠢的 (zh) (yúchǔn de)

• Chuukese: tiparoch
• Czech: pošetilý (cs) m, hloupý (cs) m
• Danish: tåbelig, dum (da)
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: onverstandig (nl), dom (nl)
• Esperanto: malsaĝa, stulta (eo)
• Estonian: rumal (et), narr, tobe, loll (et)
• Faroese: býttur, býttisligur, óvitskutur, fávitskutur
• Finnish: houkkamainen (fi)
• French: sot (fr), stupide (fr), bête (fr), idiot (fr)
• Galician: necio (gl)
• Georgian: სულელი (suleli)
• German: dumm (de), närrisch (de), töricht (de)
• Gothic: 𐌳𐍅𐌰𐌻𐍃 (dwals), 𐌿𐌽𐍆𐍂𐍉𐌸𐍃 (unfrōþs)
• Greek: ανόητος (el) (anóitos)

  Ancient: ἄφρων (áphrōn)

• Hebrew: מטופש m (metupásh), טיפשי m (tipshí)
• Hindi: मूर्ख (hi) (mūrkh)
• Hungarian: buta (hu)
• Icelandic: heimskur (is)
• Ido: dessaja (io)
• Interlingua: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: leibideach, díchéillí, aimhghlic
• Italian: babbeo (it), sciocco (it)
• Japanese: 愚かな (ja) (おろかな, oroka na), 馬鹿げた (ばかげた, bakageta), 馬鹿な (ja) (ばかな, baka na)
• Kabuverdianu: tolobásku
• Kapampangan: bolang, borbolen
• Khmer: ភ្លើ (km) (pləə)
• Korean: 어리석다 (ko) (eoriseokda), 둔하다 (ko) (dunhada)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: please add this translation if you can

• Ladino: bovo
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: fatuus, stultus (la), mōrus (la), ineptus
• Latvian: muļķīgs, dumjš, neprātīgs
• Lithuanian: kvailas, neprotingas
• Luxembourgish: domm (lb), topeg
• Macedonian: глупав (glupav)
• Manx: ommidjagh, blebbinagh, neuhushtagh, meecheeallagh, sou-cheayllagh, bolvaneagh
• Maori: manuware, nenekara, rūrūwai, heahea, wawau
• Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tåpelig (no), dum (no)

• Oromo: gowwaa
• Ottoman Turkish: خفیف (hafif)
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: احمق (fa) (ahmaq), ببو (fa) (babu)
• Polish: niemądry (pl), głupi (pl)
• Portuguese: idiota (pt), tolo (pt)
• Romanian: prost (ro), tont (ro), nerod (ro)
• Russian: глу́пый (ru) (glúpyj), дура́цкий (ru) (duráckij), дурно́й (ru) (durnój), идио́тский (ru) (idiótskij)
• Sardinian:

  Campidanese: bovu, bacciloi, lolloi, managu, mengòsu

  Logudorese: dòndoro, ménzu, menzosu, bovu

• Scots: please add this translation if you can
• Scottish Gaelic: amaideach, faoin
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: будаласт, глуп

  Roman: budalast (sh), glup (sh)

• Sidamo: gowwa
• Slovak: pochabý, hlúpy (sk)
• Slovene: neumen (sl), butast, trapast
• Somali: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: tonto (es), necio (es), imprudente (es), taba (es) (Peru), lonyipietro (River Plate)
• Swedish: dåraktig (sv), dum (sv)
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: మూర్ఖ (mūrkha), పిచ్చి (te) (picci)
• Thai: โง่ (th) (ngôo)
• Tocharian A: āknats
• Tocharian B: aknātsa
• Turkish: ahmak (tr), akılsız (tr), aptalca (tr), enayice (tr), sersem (tr), angut (tr)
• Tày: bả, bả mướng, phoóc
• Ukrainian: дурни́й (uk) (durnýj)
• Urdu: مورکھ (mūrkh)
• Vietnamese: dại dột (vi)
• Volapük: fopik (vo)
• Walloon: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: נאַריש (narish)

resembling or characteristic of a fool

• Bulgarian: глупав (bg) m (glupav)
• German: dumm (de), töricht (de), (literal) närrisch (de)
• Hebrew: מטופש m (metupásh), טיפשי m (tipshí)
• Latvian: muļķīgs, dumjš, neprātīgs
• Manx: ommidjagh, blebbinagh, meecheeallagh, neuhushtagh, sou-cheayllagh, bolvaneagh
• Scottish Gaelic: amaideach
• Spanish: tonto (es)