idiocy

English

Alternative forms

• idiotcy (archaic)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪdi.əsi/

Noun

idiocy (countable and uncountable, plural idiocies)

1. (psychology) The state or condition of being an idiot; the quality of having an intelligence level far below average; mental retardation.
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

• imbecility
• stupidity

Related terms

• idiot
• idiotic
• idiotically
• idiocracy

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
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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 f
• Tagalog: kaungasan
• Volapük: diot (vo)

extremely foolish behaviour

• Bulgarian: идиотщина (bg) f (idiotština)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Middle English: sotie, sotschipe

References

• “idiocy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• dioicy