variants also dopy
1
as in dumb
not having or showing an ability to absorb ideas readily a sweet but dopey little dog who never learned any tricks

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

2

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of dopey Its central character, Chevy Chase's Clark W. Griswold, is a dopey dad trying to keep it together amid an escalating series of exasperating frustrations and ignoble temptations. Jordan Hoffman, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Sep. 2025 Pritzker and dopey Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have turned Chicago into Kabul during Joe Biden’s criminal withdrawal, or Saigon during the Tet Offensive. Peter Lucas, Boston Herald, 8 Sep. 2025 The dweller, like the pilots in the film, made dopey exclamations of awe. Nick Paumgarten, New Yorker, 11 Aug. 2025 The dopey armor truck guard is the kind of guy that panics under pressure. Lovia Gyarkye, HollywoodReporter, 4 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for dopey
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dopey
Adjective
  • As Legally Blonde's Elle Woods, Witherspoon charted a memorable path from dumb blonde to Harvard Law School graduate.
    Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Celebrities fight it out to be eliminated from the competition as quickly as possible to avoid being crowned the nation’s dumbest.
    Peter White, Deadline, 4 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Glancing around the standing-room-only party, filled with joyful hugs and happy chatter as guests drank spicy margaritas and nibbled on fries in paper cones printed with quotes from the book, a dazed Brown smiled.
    Hadley Meares, HollywoodReporter, 24 Oct. 2025
  • In one of the film’s least subtle moments, a dazed Bruce is startled to attention.
    Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 24 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • What gave me the crazy idea to stand at the bar, listening to that woman being praised for her stupid f---ing commitment to New York City and her ugly f---ing buildings?
    Charlotte Phillipp, PEOPLE, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Her mechanism for luring victims involves a stick, someone’s hair, her blood, and another person stupid enough to let her through their front door.
    Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 6 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Snook and Lacy, who display such sharp instincts in their best work, seem to have been directed to overact; cameras freeze on their exaggeratedly bewildered or angry or devastated expressions, putting exclamation points at the end of too many scenes.
    Judy Berman, Time, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Instead, a bewildered stranger answers the door.
    Ben Travers, IndieWire, 6 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Hoover finished 319 yards on 34-of-50 passing, but his two turnovers were critical mistakes that led to TCU’s slow start in the first half.
    Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 Nov. 2025
  • When visiting the exhibit, plan on taking your time to make the most of it, or what the American Federation of Arts calls slow looking.
    Susan B. Barnes, Southern Living, 9 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Prince Harry's hat choice confused fans, who believed the royal should have been rooting for the Toronto Blue Jays due to Canada’s link to the United Kingdom.
    Lauryn Overhultz, FOXNews.com, 7 Nov. 2025
  • George Catts, the city council’s agricultural commissioner who led the parade atop his horse, was confused.
    Patrick Salland, Kansas City Star, 7 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • According to Bruce Blair, a former Air Force launch officer and nuclear policy expert, between 1962 and the mid-1970s the most powerful digits on the globe were simple – eight zeros.
    Charlotte Reck, CNN Money, 9 Nov. 2025
  • That something as simple as a COVID vaccine might improve survival in cancer patients receiving standard immunotherapy has taken oncologists by surprise — in a good way.
    Lisa Jarvis, Twin Cities, 8 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • The entrepreneur was seemingly distracted and disengaged to the point where Snoop had to call her attention back.
    Essence, Essence, 4 Nov. 2025
  • Better, but invites distracted glances with every notification.
    Li Goldstein, Bon Appetit Magazine, 25 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Dopey.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dopey. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.

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