foolish

foolish

adjective

Definition of FOOLISH

1

showing or marked by a lack of good sense or judgment <foolish people who thought that the world would end in the year 2000> <a foolish scheme that was supposed to make us all rich>

Synonyms absurd, asinine, balmy, brainless, bubbleheaded, cockeyed, crackpot, crazy, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dippy, dotty, fatuous, featherheaded, fool, half-baked, harebrained, half-witted, inept, insane, jerky, kooky (also kookie), loony (also looney), lunatic, lunkheaded, mad, nonsensical, nutty, preposterous, sappy, screwball, senseless, silly, simpleminded, stupid, tomfool, unwise, wacky (also whacky), weak-minded, witless, zany

Related Words airheaded, birdbrained, boobish, brain-dead, chowderheaded, chuckleheaded, clueless, dense, dim, dim-witted, doltish, dopey (also dopy), dorky [slang], dull, dumb, dunderheaded, empty-headed, fatuous, feebleminded, gormless [chiefly British], idiotic (also idiotical), imbecile (or imbecilic), knuckleheaded, lamebrain (or lamebrained), mindless, moronic, oafish, obtuse, opaque, pinheaded, simple, slow, slow-witted, soft, softheaded, thoughtless, thick, thickheaded, unintelligent, vacuous, witless; fallacious, illogical, invalid, irrational, nonrational, surd, unreasonable, unreasoning, unsound, weak; farcical, laughable, ludicrous, ridiculous; notional; buffoonish, clownish; ill-advised, unconsidered, unreasoned

Phrases out to lunch

Near Antonyms brainy, bright, clever, intelligent, smart; logical, rational, reasonable, valid; well-advised

Antonyms judicious, prudent, sagacious, sage, sane, sapient, sensible, sound, wise

2

conceived or made without regard for reason or reality <foolish attempts to construct a perpetual motion machine>

Synonyms absurd, bizarre, crazy, fanciful, foolish, insane, nonsensical, preposterous, unreal, wild

Related Words implausible, inconceivable, incredible, unbelievable, unimaginable, unthinkable; extravagant, grotesque; bizarro, curious, eccentric, far-out, funny, kinky, kooky (also kookie), odd, outlandish, out-of-the-way, outré, peculiar, quaint, queer, queerish, quirky, screwy, strange, wacky (also whacky), way-out, weird; farcical, laughable, ludicrous, ridiculous; Alice-in-Wonderland, Kafkaesque, nightmarish; dreamlike, surreal

Antonyms realistic, reasonable

3

lacking importance <the current regulations are cluttered with foolish details that are unnecessarily burdensome>

Synonyms fiddling, foolish, frivolous, incidental, inconsequential, inconsiderable, insignificant, little, Mickey Mouse, minor, minute, negligible, nugatory, slight, small, small-fry, trifling, trivial

Related Words jerkwater, one-horse; nickel-and-dime, paltry, petty, small-time, worthless; anonymous, nameless, obscure, uncelebrated, unknown

Near Antonyms decisive, fatal, fateful; chief, dominant, overbearing, overmastering, overriding, principal; distinctive, exceptional, impressive, outstanding, prominent, remarkable; valuable, worthwhile, worthy; distinguished, eminent, great, illustrious, preeminent, prestigious; famous, notorious, renowned; all-important, basic, essential, fundamental, key

Antonyms big, consequential, eventful, important, major, material, meaningful, momentous, significant, substantial, unfrivolous, weighty