idiocy

English

Alternative forms

• idiotcy (archaic)

Etymology

From French idiotie, from Old French idiot. Displaced earlier idiotacy, idiotry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪdi.əsi/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

idiocy (countable and uncountable, plural idiocies)

1. (dated, psychology, now derogatory) The state or condition of being an idiot; the quality of having an intelligence level far below average; mental retardation; intellectual disability.
2. An act lacking intelligence or sense; an instance of senselessness; extremely foolish behaviour.

   The administrators, growing tired of such idiocy, put a new policy in place.

Synonyms

• idiocity
• idiotacy
• idioticy
• idiotry
• imbecility
• stupidity

Derived terms

• artificial idiocy
• Mongolian idiocy

 

Related terms

• idiocracy
• idiot
• idiotic
• idiotically

Translations

state of being an idiot

• Bulgarian: идиотия f (idiotija)
• Catalan: idiòcia f
• Chichewa: utsiru
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 白痴 (zh) (báichī)

• Czech: idiocie f
• Danish: idioti
• Esperanto: idioteco
• Finnish: tylsämielisyys (fi), idiotia, idioottimaisuus (fi)
• French: idiotie (fr) f
• German: Idiotie (de) f
• Greek: ηλιθιότητα (el) f (ilithiótita), ιδιωτεία (el) f (idioteía)
• Manx: meecheealaght f, meecheeallid m, ommidys m
• Occitan: idiocia f
• Portuguese: idiotice (pt) f
• Russian: идиоти́зм (ru) m (idiotízm), идио́тство (ru) n (idiótstvo)
• Spanish: idiotez (es) f
• Tagalog: kaungasan
• Volapük: diot (vo)

extremely foolish behaviour

• Bulgarian: идиотщина (bg) f (idiotština)
• Middle English: sotie, sotschipe

References

• idiocy at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• dioicy