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, fantastic, insane, nonsensical, preposterous, unreal, wildRelated 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, surrealAntonyms realistic, reasonable

3 lacking importance the current regulations are cluttered with foolish details that are unnecessarily burdensome Synonyms fiddling, unimportant, frivolous, incidental, inconsequential, inconsiderable, insignificant, little, Mickey Mouse, minor, minute, negligible, nugatory, slight, small, small-fry, trifling, trivialRelated Words jerkwater, one-horse; nickel-and-dime, paltry, petty, small-time, worthless; anonymous, nameless, obscure, uncelebrated, unknownNear 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, keyAntonyms big, consequential, eventful, important, major, material, meaningful, momentous, significant, substantial, unfrivolous, weighty