folly

1 a foolish act or idea the American purchase of Alaska was originally considered a grand folly Synonyms absurdity, asininity, bêtise, fatuity, foolery, foppery, idiocy, imbecility, inanity, insanity, lunacy, stupidity Related Words absurdness, craziness, foolishness, inaneness, madness, senselessness, witlessness; buffoonery, monkeyshine(s), shenanigan(s), tomfoolery; drivel, humbug, nonsense, twaddle; blunder, bungle, flub, goof, howler Near Antonyms discretion, forethought, prudence, sagacity, wisdom; brainstorm, inspiration

2 lack of good sense or judgment in all my folly, I didn't think about how my actions would hurt my father Synonyms absurdity, asininity, balminess, brainlessness, craziness, daftness, dippiness, dottiness, fatuity, fatuousness, foolishness, imbecility, inanity, insanity, lunacy, madness, nonsensicalness, nuttiness, preposterousness, senselessness, silliness, simplicity, unwisdom, wackiness, witlessness, zaninessRelated Words denseness, dim-wittedness, doltishness, dopiness, dullness (also dulness), dumbness, feeblemindedness, gormlessness [chiefly British], idiocy, mindlessness, oafishness, obtuseness, simplemindedness, simpleness, slowness, stupidity, stupidness, vacuity; fallacy, irrationality, unreasonableness; kookiness, weirdness; laughableness, ludicrousness, ridiculousnessNear Antonyms logicality, logicalness, rationality, rationalness, reasonability, reasonableness, validity; discernment, insight, perception, percipienceAntonyms prudence, sagaciousness, sagacity, sageness, sanity, sapience, sensibleness, soundness, wisdom

3 language, behavior, or ideas that are absurd and contrary to good sense enough of this folly about moving to the Australian outback Synonyms applesauce [slang], balderdash, baloney (also boloney), beans, bilge, blah (also blah-blah), blarney, blather, blatherskite, blither, bosh, bull [slang], bunk, bunkum (or buncombe), claptrap, codswallop [British], crapola [slang], crock, drivel, drool, fiddle, fiddle-faddle, fiddlesticks, flannel [British], flapdoodle, folderol (also falderal), nonsense, foolishness, fudge, garbage, guff, hogwash, hokeypokey, hokum, hoodoo, hooey, horsefeathers [slang], humbug, humbuggery, jazz, malarkey (also malarky), moonshine, muck, nerts [slang], nuts, piffle, poppycock, punk, rot, rubbish, senselessness, silliness, slush, stupidity, taradiddle (or tarradiddle), tommyrot, tosh, trash, trumpery, twaddleRelated Words absurdity, asininity, fatuity, foolery, idiocy, imbecility, inaneness, inanity, insanity, kookiness, lunacy; absurdness, craziness, madness, senselessness, witlessness; hoity-toity, monkey business, monkeyshine(s), shenanigan(s), tomfoolery; gas, hot air, rigmarole (also rigamarole); double-talk, greek, hocus-pocusNear Antonyms levelheadedness, rationality, reasonability, reasonableness, sensibleness; common sense, horse sense, sense; discernment, judgment (or judgement), wisdom