idiot
/ˈɪdiət/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.39 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
3
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person of the lowest intellectual standing, a person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal four-year-old; a person with an IQ below 30.
Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "Only an idiot would fail this exam."
- "After failing a hat-trick of exams, the teacher called him an idiot."
- "He thought people who don't like cricket are idiots. He later got into fights with people who like football."
- "We think that people who cycle without a helmet are idiots."
- "“He’s an idiot – in terms of saying that. Everybody knows this. Everybody knows it. Nobody doubts it,” Biden said."
- "“One of the things that you write so beautifully, and your stuff is so fun to read, but you write about Trump, quote, ‘The way that you build a truly vicious nationalist movement is to wed a relatively small core of belligerent idiots to a much larger group of opportunists and spineless fellow travelers whose primary function is to turn a blind eye to things,’” Kennedy said, reading Taibbi’s own writing back to him."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *swé Proto-Indo-European *swéd-yo-s Proto-Hellenic *hwédios Ancient Greek ἴδιος (ídios) Ancient Greek -ώτης (-ṓtēs) Ancient Greek ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs) Latin idiotabor. Old French idiotebor. Middle English ydiote English idiot From Middle English idiote, ydiote, from Old French idiote (later idiot), from Latin idiota, from Ancient Greek ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs, “a private citizen, one who has no professional knowledge, layman”), from ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own, pertaining to oneself, private”). Doublet of idiota. By surface analysis, idi- + -ot.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɪdiət/
- British English: /ˈɪdiət/
Usage
Inflected Forms
idiots (plural)
idjit (alternative, nonstandard)
idget (alternative, nonstandard)
eejit (alternative, Ireland)
more idiot (comparative)
most idiot (superlative)
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
Antonyms
genius
intelligent person