as in dumb
not having or showing an ability to absorb ideas readily you're not unintelligent, so you must just be stubbornly resisting all attempts to teach you something

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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 unintelligent The show and its participants were even parodied on Saturday Night Live in January, with comedian Ego Nwodim playing Amuli, and other cast members mocking people’s poor conversation skills and unintelligent dating decisions. Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 10 Apr. 2025 Google had to re-edit a Super Bowl ad for its artificial intelligence (AI) tool Gemini because the original ad had Gemini seeming artificially unintelligent. Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 7 Feb. 2025 Growing shares in each party describe those in the other party as more closed-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent than other Americans. NBC News, 22 Dec. 2024 In short: Wells assumed Neanderthals were unintelligent brutes. Byrd Pinkerton, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018 See All Example Sentences for unintelligent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unintelligent
Adjective
  • And, in one of the dumbest and most obviously racist postr taken by a presidential candidate, at some point Republicans became fixated on the idea that Haitian migrants were stealing pets for food in the Midwest.
    Sal Rodriguez, Oc Register, 18 Oct. 2025
  • After Johnson gave his answer to that resolutely dumb question, several other luminaries took a whack at the zeitgeist piñata.
    Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 17 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • But, God, to be able to play a Pablo Escobar who was just petty and wanted friends, there was something so stupid and so hilarious about that to me.
    Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Keaton continued to play oddballs with a peculiar way of talking, though none were trivial or stupid.
    Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 12 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Audition is a slow burn, spending the better part of two hours setting up audiences for arguably one of the most graphic climaxes in horror history.
    Steven Thrash, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Oct. 2025
  • Tai chi is a form of exercise that involves slow, gentle movements and balancing poses.
    Carrie Madormo, Health, 19 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Monochromatic Raven loves to stick to a simple, serene palette by combining a variety of white tulips with different bloom times.
    Miranda Crowell, Better Homes & Gardens, 18 Oct. 2025
  • This Madewell version channels that effortless, neutral polish Kitts described—simple, structured, and endlessly versatile.
    Rosie Marder, Travel + Leisure, 18 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • The pilot has moments both sweet and funny, and sets up the possibility of romance amongst the characters, as well as further high jinks from a rotating cast of license seekers and citizens ignorant of the requirements for a Real ID.
    Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 11 Oct. 2025
  • At the time, central Appalachia was widely depicted in the popular press as a backward, ignorant region whose mountainous terrain kept its people isolated, outside the flow of progress – a stereotype still common today.
    The Conversation, The Conversation, 7 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Their style of pitching — relentlessly pound the strike zone — works well in a ballpark where the thick air depresses doubles and triples.
    Tyler Kepner, New York Times, 16 Oct. 2025
  • Let cool and spread a layer, about one-fourth-inch thick, of cream cheese icing over the entire cake.
    Kathryn Gregory, Louisville Courier Journal, 15 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Unintelligent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unintelligent. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.

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