as in stupid
not having or showing an ability to absorb ideas readily
a knuckleheaded attempt to increase efficiency that only succeeded in making things worse
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for knuckleheaded
Adjective
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Mexican men were dismissed as violent Panchos and stupid Pedros.—
Gustavo Arellano,
Los Angeles Times,
24 June 2025 -
There’s more stupid romance around harder substances but few chemicals are more hazardous to ambition than THC.—
Benjamin Hale
June 23,
Literary Hub,
23 June 2025
Adjective
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Ratajkowski has been fighting the stereotype of the dumb model from the beginning of her career.—
Daniel Jackson,
Allure,
18 July 2017
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Ninety nine percent of all NFL players are explicitly not dumb.—
Andy Benoit,
The MMQB,
10 July 2017
Adjective
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The music is, for the most part, quiet and slow, often hovering at the edge of silence.—
Alex Ross,
New Yorker,
23 June 2025
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Repeated waxing weakens follicles, making hair grow in finer and slower over time.—
Nia Bowers,
USA Today,
23 June 2025
Adjective
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The simplest ideas in mathematics can also be the most perplexing.—
Leila Sloman,
Wired News,
29 June 2025
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And given that toppers were developed specifically as a lighter, simpler alternative to full-bodied campers, designed to fit within limited midsize truck payloads, that extra beef is a definite problem for some shoppers.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
28 June 2025
Adjective
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As thick clouds billowed out of Eyjafjallajökull, the skies over the North Atlantic — one of the world’s busiest aviation routes — fell silent, with air traffic dropping to levels that wouldn’t be seen again until the Covid pandemic a decade later.—
Brad Lendon,
CNN Money,
21 June 2025
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Simply lather a thick coating of petroleum jelly onto the scratch.—
Kaitlyn Yarborough,
Southern Living,
21 June 2025
Adjective
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And jingoism, idiotic, is not patriotism.—
Jay Nordlinger,
National Review,
7 Mar. 2025
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But, here, the characters suffer from the horror film syndrome of making one idiotic decision after another because that’s what the film requires to send the action in its intended direction.—
Scott Phillips,
Forbes,
15 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Knuckleheaded.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/knuckleheaded. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025.
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