unintelligent

adjective

un·​in·​tel·​li·​gent ˌən-in-ˈte-lə-jənt 

: lacking intelligence : not intelligent

an unintelligent remark

a crude, unintelligent person

unintelligently adverb

Synonyms

• airheaded
• birdbrained
• bonehead
• boneheaded
• brain-dead
• brainless
• bubbleheaded
• chuckleheaded
• dense
• dim
• dim-witted
• doltish
• dopey
• dopy
• dorky [slang]
• dull
• dumb
• dunderheaded
• empty-headed
• fatuous
• gormless [chiefly British]
• half-witted
• knuckleheaded
• lamebrain
• lamebrained
• lunkheaded
• mindless
• oafish
• obtuse
• opaque
• pinheaded
• senseless
• simple
• slow
• slow-witted
• soft
• softheaded
• stupid
• thick
• thick-witted
• thickheaded
• unsmart
• vacuous
• weak-minded
• witless

Examples of unintelligent in a Sentence

you're not unintelligent, so you must just be stubbornly resisting all attempts to teach you something

Recent Examples on the Web

The show and its participants were even parodied on Saturday Night Live in January, with comedian Ego Nwodim playing Amuli, and other cast members mocking people’s poor conversation skills and unintelligent dating decisions. —Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 10 Apr. 2025

Participants hesitated almost three times as long to switch off an intelligent and agreeable robot (34.5 seconds) compared to an unintelligent and non agreeable robot (11.8 seconds). —IEEE Spectrum, 31 Jan. 2013

Google had to re-edit a Super Bowl ad for its artificial intelligence (AI) tool Gemini because the original ad had Gemini seeming artificially unintelligent. —Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 7 Feb. 2025

Growing shares in each party describe those in the other party as more closed-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent than other Americans. —NBC News, 22 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1664, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for unintelligent

• intelligent

Kids Definition

unintelligent

adjective

un·​in·​tel·​li·​gent

ˌən-in-ˈtel-ə-jənt

: lacking intelligence : unwise, stupid

an unintelligent use of your money

unintelligently adverb