1
as in insanity
a foolish act or idea
investing in that company now would be foolery
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in joking
wildly playful or mischievous behavior
let the kids have a little foolery once in a while
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of foolery
The whole of humanity doesn’t fit tidily into three acts, even assuming as much frame-breaking foolery as Wilder allows.
—
New York Times, 25 Apr. 2022
Political pranking is traditionally thought of as benign foolery targeting the powerful.
—Stanislav Budnitsky, The Conversation, 19 Apr. 2022
Eric Andre, Tyler the Creator and Machine Gun Kelly all drop by to participate in the Jack-foolery.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 2 Feb. 2022
Our magpie eyes will always be drawn to foolery and ephemera.
—Giles Hattersley, Vogue, 13 Dec. 2021
Once every ten years, the first of April assumes a far more significant importance than the annual sharing of April foolery.
—James Deutsch, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Apr. 2020
All the organs of his body were working — bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming — all toiling away in solemn foolery.
—John Hirschauer, National Review, 17 Sep. 2019
This single photograph simultaneously invokes the histories of racial violence and racial degradation, cruelly dismissing their gravity by casting them in the guise of comedy and youthful foolery.
—Drew Gilpin Faust, The Atlantic, 18 July 2019
The conceit allowed for some fancy dancing, along with a display of the talents of the musical director, Gregory Boover, who also portrayed Feste as a jazz musician, giving weight to his character’s foolery.
—Edward Rothstein, WSJ, 11 July 2019
New York Times, 25 Apr. 2022
Political pranking is traditionally thought of as benign foolery targeting the powerful.
—Stanislav Budnitsky, The Conversation, 19 Apr. 2022
Eric Andre, Tyler the Creator and Machine Gun Kelly all drop by to participate in the Jack-foolery.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 2 Feb. 2022
Our magpie eyes will always be drawn to foolery and ephemera.
—Giles Hattersley, Vogue, 13 Dec. 2021
Once every ten years, the first of April assumes a far more significant importance than the annual sharing of April foolery.
—James Deutsch, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Apr. 2020
All the organs of his body were working — bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming — all toiling away in solemn foolery.
—John Hirschauer, National Review, 17 Sep. 2019
This single photograph simultaneously invokes the histories of racial violence and racial degradation, cruelly dismissing their gravity by casting them in the guise of comedy and youthful foolery.
—Drew Gilpin Faust, The Atlantic, 18 July 2019
The conceit allowed for some fancy dancing, along with a display of the talents of the musical director, Gregory Boover, who also portrayed Feste as a jazz musician, giving weight to his character’s foolery.
—Edward Rothstein, WSJ, 11 July 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for foolery
Noun
-
Ed brings great depth and heart to the man in charge of safety for this massive jump, an island of reason in a sea of insanity.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
14 Oct. 2025
-
At trial, Crawford's attorneys acknowledged his guilt to lay the groundwork for an insanity defense, even though that's not how Crawford wanted to handle the case, according to reporting by the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network.—
Amanda Lee Myers,
USA Today,
13 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Jones eventually got into his joking bag, and Bleek took that opportunity to seriously set the record straight one last time.—
Armon Sadler,
VIBE.com,
15 Oct. 2025
-
And their joking comments about their relationship never help the matter.—
Lizzie Lanuza,
StyleCaster,
15 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Advertisement Aster keenly satirizes Joe’s idiocy in the face of social upheaval through the iconography of Westerns.—
Robert Daniels,
Time,
10 Oct. 2025
-
But my naivete and idiocy about what this was going to take was staggering to me just six months later.—
Scott Feinberg,
HollywoodReporter,
19 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
This Survivor 49 challenge tomfoolery actually began before the season even started filming.—
Dalton Ross,
Entertainment Weekly,
8 Oct. 2025
-
Rite of passage or midnight tomfoolery?—
Jake Allen,
IndyStar,
10 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Protesters have slammed the notions and multiple attendees wore inflatable frog and animal costumes to point to the absurdity of the claims of danger.—
Darcie Moran,
Freep.com,
18 Oct. 2025
-
These acts of radical playfulness—the inflatable dance parties, the music, the absurdity—have become part of the city’s moral vocabulary.—
MSNBC Newsweek,
MSNBC Newsweek,
17 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Their relationship, tentative, intimate, and defiant, lingers long after the satirical skewering of male buffoonery has faded.—
Leila Latif,
IndieWire,
5 Sep. 2025
-
He’s been tinkering with this messaging on and off since damn near the start of the century, when his criticism of the genre shifted from the power-holding executives (both white and Black) of the music industry who were profiting off buffoonery, a la Bamboozled, to rap music itself.—
Alphonse Pierre,
Pitchfork,
15 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
The Orphan Master’s Son, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013, follows a North Korean man struggling to survive amid the cruelty and madness of a modern totalitarian regime.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
16 Oct. 2025
-
No orgies, no drug madness, no trouble with the law.—
Touré,
Rolling Stone,
14 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Finally, after plenty of clowning, Taylor Swift has revealed that her 12th album is on the way, titled The Life of a Showgirl.—
Tom Smyth,
Vulture,
13 Aug. 2025
-
This is a work in which the slapstick clowning and the tricky verbal non sequiturs should be merely the surface for roiling undercurrents of anguish, futility, despair and fear.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
3 Sep. 2019
Cite this Entry
“Foolery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/foolery. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.
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