Is stupidest a word in the dictionary

Yes, «stupidest» is a real word and it is grammatically correct. I only found that out now as I researched this answer.

When I was in elementary school in the 1960’s, I was also taught that one had to say:

1. stupid
2. more stupid (comparative)
3. most stupid (superlative)

In recent years, I hear people saying things like, «That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.» Or, «Can anything be stupider than that?»

It seemed to me like slang, like people were just too lazy to speak correctly in the vernacular. However, when I looked it up on Google just now, I found the following in Grammarly:

Stupid is a two-syllable adjective, which means you can make its
comparative and superlative forms in one of two ways: by adding the
corresponding suffix or by adding more or most.

For some two-syllable words, says Grammarly, we put more and most in front of them but for stupid we can use either method.

Comparative: er: tall, taller; stupid, stupider; more stupid

Superlative: est: tall, taller, tallest; stupid, stupider, stupidest; most stupid

According to Grammarly:

Stupider is grammatically correct, it is a real word, and it’s been in
use for at least the last two hundred years.

…

As with stupider, stupidest is perfectly correct and listed as
standard in dictionaries.

I’m not going to argue with Grammarly and standard dictionaries. In fact, I like the words stupider and stupidest. There’s just nothing that expresses disgust for lack of thought better than those two words, in my opinion.

Last Update: Jan 03, 2023

This is a question our experts keep getting from time to time. Now, we have got the complete detailed explanation and answer for everyone, who is interested!

Asked by: Tiffany Towne

Score: 4.1/5
(56 votes)

Stupider and stupidest are real words in good standing. While there are many (contradictory) rules on comparative and superlative adjectives, there is no rule against stupider and stupidest, and the words have a long history of usage.

Is saying most stupidest grammatically correct?

The correct statement would be ‘the most stupid. ‘ » She explained further: «The superlative of stupid is most stupid. Dictionaries prior to the 1980’s did not even show this word.

What is the stupidest word in the world?

10 Of The Dumbest Words Added To The Dictionary In The Last 10…

What is the stupidest word in English?

The 10 Worst Words in the English Language

When did dumber become a word?

Many etymologically curious people have asked the question before—there’s even some consensus online that the term derives from a scene in the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber.

23 related questions found

Asked by: Tiffany Towne

Score: 4.1/5
(56 votes)

Stupider and stupidest are real words in good standing. While there are many (contradictory) rules on comparative and superlative adjectives, there is no rule against stupider and stupidest, and the words have a long history of usage.

Is saying most stupidest grammatically correct?

The correct statement would be ‘the most stupid. ‘ » She explained further: «The superlative of stupid is most stupid. Dictionaries prior to the 1980’s did not even show this word.

What is the stupidest word in the world?

10 Of The Dumbest Words Added To The Dictionary In The Last 10…

What is the stupidest word in English?

The 10 Worst Words in the English Language

When did dumber become a word?

Many etymologically curious people have asked the question before—there’s even some consensus online that the term derives from a scene in the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber.

23 related questions found

If we wished to describe a fellow who had made a bet that he could eat a series of exceptionally hot peppers we might refer to him as rash, rasher than most, or the rashest person we knew. We might also say that he is more foolhardy, or the most foolhardy person we have seen. But what if we want to describe him as stupid? Would he be more stupid or stupider? Welcome to another episode of Usage Questions for Which There is No Answer That Will Make Everyone Happy.

Soft Rules of Superlatives

The rules governing the proper way of forming the comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives are messy things. At first glance the matter seems simple enough; students are often advised that adjectives of a single syllable are modified with —er or —est, those with three or more syllables are modified with more or most, and those with two syllables are modified with -er or -est if they end with a vowel or vowel sound (such as pretty or narrow), but modified with more or most if they end in certain consonants (such as benign), and modified with either —er/est or more/most for words ending in certain other consonant sounds. That is not simple at all.

There are also obvious exceptions to the above rules. Some single-syllable adjectives are not modified either way, on account of irregularity (good/better/best) or due to convention (ill is typically not modified with -er or -est, unless you are a Beastie Boy). And some three-syllable words work fine with the -er and —est endings, if they have an un— at the beginning (unhappier). However, most people have a solid grasp of how to modify adjective with either a single syllable or more than two. It’s the middle ground that creates problems.

«Realness» of Stupider and Stupidest

Some people find stupider and stupidest objectionable, for reasons that are not entirely clear. Both have been in widespread use for hundreds of years, there are no usage guides that we know of forbidding their use, and there are plenty of words which share characteristics of stupid, such as polite (both are disyllables ending in an alveolar stop), that manage to end in -er or —est without bothering anyone. One possibility is that disyllabic adjectives ending in a voiceless alveolar stop (polite) sound pleasing to our ear when ending in -er, but the voiced alveolar stops (stupid) do not. Even if this is true, it seems a bit unwieldy to add to the chapter of ‘how to make your adjectives happy and healthy.’

We list stupider and stupidest as the comparative and superlative forms of stupid, because that is what they are. They are honest-to-goodness, one-hundred-percent, grade-A, real words. In case anyone tries to tell you otherwise here is a small sample of them being used in edited prose over the ages.

…part and counterpart wandered independently about the earth in the stupidest manner for a while, till the late time came.
— Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, 1891

«All ladies like them, I suppose,» said that stupidest and most stubborn of all humble friends, Miss Macnulty.
— Anthony Trollope, The Eustace Diamonds, 1873

Death, insanity/suicide degeneration 

that is, just getting stupider as they get older
— Ezra Pound, The Cantos of Ezra Pound, 1972

Joe suspects, as does the neighborhood woman who gives the film a piquant fairy-tale quality when her dog is stolen in the opening scene, that for some reason people are getting stupider and stupider all the time.
— Janet Maslin, The New York Times, 27 Feb. 1998

If stupider and stupidest grate upon your ears you may simply use more or most instead. Looking beyond this problem word, if you find yourself faced with a two-syllable adjective, and need to modify it, do not become alarmed, as adjectives can smell fear. Let your ear, and the reaction of your audience, be your guide. If readers hiss, or begin to ululate, after you tack on an —er you may wish to consider modifying this word with more next time you use it. But insofar as the modification of most two-syllable adjectives is concerned the only advice we can give with absolute certainty is to never make a bet about eating hot peppers.

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WordReference English-Russian Dictionary © 2023:

Collins Russian Dictionary 2nd Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2000, 1997:

stupid [ˈstjuːpɪd]
adj (person, question etc) глу́пый/глуп

* is used to mark translations which have irregular inflections. The Russian-English side of the dictionary gives inflectional information.

Q: Being an avid IRC user in Australia, I chat with a lot of US folk. Your site was able to explain to me why I hadn’t seen many of them use “whilst,” “amongst,” and “amidst” as much as I do. I was wondering if you could answer this question. Back in high school, my senior English teachers used to complain about the superlative “stupidest.” They proclaimed that “stupid” could not be used in such a manner, and that only “most stupid” was appropriate. Any idea where their belief may have originated?

A: I don’t see any problem with “stupidest.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.), for example, gives the forms as “stupid” … “stupider” … “stupidest.”

And this isn’t a peculiar Americanism. H. W. Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage also gives the correct forms as “stupid” … “stupider” … “stupidest.”

Fowler hints, though, at what might account for your teachers’ avoiding “est” in favor of “most” to form the superlative:

“Neglect or violation of established usage with comparatives & superlatives sometimes betrays ignorance, but more often reveals the repellent assumption that the writer is superior to conventions binding on the common herd.”

And “stupidest” does seem to be quite common in English usage. While the Oxford English Dictionary has no entry specifically for “stupidest,” I did find the word in several quotations cited within other entries, including these:

1828: Thomas Carlyle, in a letter, refers to “the simplest and stupidest man of his day.”

1842: Samuel Lover, in Handy Andy: A Tale of Irish Life (1842), writes, “She felt the pique which every pretty woman experiences who fancies her favours disregarded, and thought Andy the stupidest lout she ever came across.”

1871: Charles Gibbon, in the novel For Lack of Gold, writes, “This cursed frenzy makes me say and think the stupidest things.”

Just for the heck of it, I searched online in “The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913,” and found the word used in testimony in a theft case tried in May 1785. A prosecutor is quoted as saying, “I should be the stupidest man living, having property, to leave my house so unsafe.”

The Old Bailey site is great fun, by the way. Check it out, when you’re not channeling with Internet Relay Chat!

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Is stupider a word?

It turns out stupider is an actual word. The word stupid is an adjective that refers to someone or something that’s foolish or senseless.

This adjective, however, only gets you so far. When you want to compare two nouns, you’ll need what’s called a comparative adjective. For example, in the sentence “Sam is bigger than Selena,” the adjective bigger is comparative. It tells you that Sam is larger in size than Selena.

If you want to compare two things that are stupid, you would use the comparative form of the adjective stupid to describe which has a greater level of stupidity. In most cases, comparative and superlative adjectives follow a simple pattern. You add the suffix –er to the original adjective when you want to form the comparative. Stupider is one acceptable form of the comparative form.

But there is another.

Stupider or more stupid

More stupid is also accepted as a comparative form of the adjective stupid. Stupider and more stupid are used interchangeably. In the English language, stupid is one of just a few adjectives that have two grammatically correct options for their comparative form.

Why is that? Well, some two-syllable adjectives (in particular, adjectives ending with –y, –er, –le, and –ow) follow the –er rule above. This includes dirty (which becomes dirtier and dirtiest), little (littler and littlest), and narrow (narrower and narrowest).

In most other cases, adjectives with two syllables use the words more and most to create their comparative and superlative forms. For example, important and public are both adjectives with multiple syllables. Their comparative forms are more important and more public. Their superlative forms are most important and most public.

Stupid is a two-syllable adjective. Based on the rule above, it should use the words more and most to form its comparative and superlative forms, and it does. However, it also breaks this rule by using –er and –est as alternative forms.

A few other adjectives use –er and –est as well as more and most, such as clever, likely, and pleasant. This means both of these sentences are grammatically correct: “Betty is more likely to win the election than Bobby” and “Betty is likelier to win than Bobby.”

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Is stupidest a word?

As you may have guessed, the adjective stupid also has a superlative form. If you’re comparing more than two things, you can use a superlative adjective. Consider this sentence: “Sam is bigger than Selena, but Sean is the biggest.” In this case, Sean is larger in size than both Selena and Sam. This shows a progression in size among the three people, with Selena as the smallest, Sam in the middle, and Sean as the largest.

Stupidest or most stupid

Just like the comparative form, the superlative form of stupid can be formed in two different ways. In most cases, superlative adjectives also follow a simple pattern. To make one-syllable adjectives superlative, just add -est (e.g. tallest, bravest, and hottest). A two-syllable word ending in -y becomes superlative when you change the Y to an I and add -est (e.g. funniest, healthiest, and spiciest). For all other words, just add most or least in front of them. You add the suffix –est to form the superlative. Once again, stupid is an example of an adjective that takes both stupidest and most stupid as acceptable superlatives.

When do you use stupider vs. stupidest?

For example, you could say “Thing A is stupid, but thing B is stupider.” This would express that you find thing B to have a greater level of stupidness than thing A. If you said “Thing B is more stupid than thing A,” it would mean the same thing as the first sentence. Both sentences show the comparative relationship between things A and B. If you’re comparing more than two things, you’ll need to use stupidest or most stupid.

Examples of stupider in a sentence

• The movie was even stupider than I expected.
• My sister thought she was stupider than I am because I got better grades.
• The idea is worth considering, even if it sounds stupider than all the others.

Examples of stupidest in a sentence

• That is just the stupidest explanation I’ve ever heard!
• Some people unkindly described the man as the stupidest alive.
• They ruined my favorite show with the stupidest ending possible.

Armed with this knowledge, you’re certainly taking a step toward being a smarter grammar student—and maybe even the smartest.