Stupid is as stupid does …
Let’s be honest: other people can grate on our nerves sometimes. It’s unavoidable. But it’s nice to know that English provides us with some helpfully descriptive words that we can use for those forehead-slapping moments when we just need to vent about our fellow humans. Let’s break down a few of our favorites here.
Note that tone is key—vocal inflection, volume, and context can communicate as much as the word itself!
dumb
Dumb is used commonly, and as insults go it’s fairly benign. Defined as “lacking intelligence or good judgment, stupid, or dull-witted,” you can usually get away with using this one in a wide range of contexts if you’re not too harsh in the delivery.
Interestingly, in Old English dumb specifically referred to people who were mute, or otherwise unable to speak. The contemporary sense of dumb as “stupid” came into common usage in the 1800s.
dope
Slang being what it is, dope has numerous senses, not all of which are negative. But when you want to cut a little deeper, a dope is “a person considered to be stupid or slow-witted.” Example: “Only a dope would refuse this opportunity.”
This notion of dope as “thick-headed” came from early-1800s American English, when dope meant “a thick sauce or gravy.” Mmm, delicious dope.
fool
The modern definition for a fool is “a silly or stupid person, or a person who lacks judgment or sense.”
This sense is likely influenced by the term’s secondary definition as “a professional jester,” formerly kept by persons of noble or royal rank for amusement. But fool’s etymological roots actually go way back to Vulgar Latin, when it meant “windbag, empty-headed person.” Talk about an insult.
brainless
Welp, there isn’t much room to misinterpret brainless. Inflection won’t swerve this one in a different direction. When someone’s brainless, they’re “mentally weak, foolish, witless, and stupid,” i.e., lacking a brain. Ouch.
idiot
This one’s a classic. Since the 1300s, idiot has been used to describe people who are “so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning.” These days, we define it slightly less cuttingly as “an utterly foolish or senseless person.” Use this when you really want to go after someone.
One appropriately harsh example: “If you think you can wear that outfit to a job interview and get hired, you’re an idiot.“
moron
This one seems mild, but it has sharper edges than you might think.
A moron refers to “a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment.” In the early 1900s, though, it was used as a technical term in psychology to mean “one of the highest class of feeble-minded persons,” and was further defined as “an adult with a mental age between 8 and 12.” Brutal.
Thankfully it’s no longer in use in the medical field as it’s now considered offensive, but be sure to keep historical context in mind when you sling this one around.
half-wit
This one’s fairly self explanatory. Dating from 1635, half-wit describes someone who’s “feeble-minded, foolish, and stupid,” or someone who only has half of their wits. Half is better than none, we suppose.
mindless
A good cousin to “brainless”, mindless means “without intelligence, senseless, a mindless creature.” Seems like one you’d mutter under your breath rather than saying out loud, no?
thick
Thick is about as descriptive as it gets, and humans have been using it as an insult meaning “stupid” since the 1500s. Rooted in the Old English term for “dense; viscous,” thick is defined as “mentally slow; dull.” A fitting term for when someone just isn’t getting it.
For even more ways to vent your frustration, explore more insulting synonyms on Thesaurus.com.
Adjective
She angrily described her boss as a stupid old man.
He had a stupid expression on his face.
I’m not stupid enough to fall for that trick.
Why are you being so stupid?
It was stupid of me to try to hide this from you.
We were stupid to wait so long before we made a decision.
I did some pretty stupid things when I was young.
Two glasses of wine are enough to make me stupid.
I was stupid with fatigue.
Noun
a genius at math, but a total stupid when it came to his love life
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Recent Examples on the Web
People told me, ‘This may be a stupid idea to ship out of an island.
—
Jim Ryan, Forbes, 31 Mar. 2023
The Witch is like one of those really long jokes with a deeply stupid punch line.
—Vulture, 31 Mar. 2023
For conservationists, this lack of fear engenders pity: The wolf is too stupid to fear the hunter’s gun or the poisoned trap, and must be saved from its own inability to be afraid.
—Colin Dickey, The New Republic, 31 Mar. 2023
Burning is one thing, but burning to force a tie is just stupid!
—Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 29 Mar. 2023
Nobody’s suffered a season-ending injury (fingers crossed the Jays playing in the World Baseball Classic emerge unscathed) or is making stupid errors costing us games or anything.
—Daniel Kohn, SPIN, 29 Mar. 2023
Spells fail, characters make stupid mistakes and terrifying creatures appear out of thin air.
—Olivia Mccormack, Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2023
Industrial robots are powerful, precise, and mostly stubbornly stupid.
—WIRED, 23 Mar. 2023
Veep stumbled just a bit once real-world politics somehow got even stupider than the Selina Meyer administration.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 22 Mar. 2023
People can be high achievers and still knee-walking stupid.
—Philip Martin, Arkansas Online, 29 Nov. 2022
It is described as a stupid-kids-in-the-woods story with a wry twist.
—Anna Marie De La Fuente, Variety, 20 Sep. 2022
But those options continue to be out of reach for the majority of those who are afflicted with this stupid, infuriating skin condition.
—Megan Mcintyre, refinery29.com, 9 June 2022
Somebody who is dyslexic sometimes has this fear of being perceived as [stupid].
—Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 7 Mar. 2022
But right now, there’s a whole lot of stupid—Keizer has it right about that.
—David Treuer, Harper’s Magazine, 26 Oct. 2021
In the final analysis, there are few things in tech that bring out the stupid to quite the degree that Apple does.
—Andy Meek, BGR, 17 June 2021
The two camps trade insults regularly on the platform, with people on opposing sides calling each other stupid or worse.
—Rong Xiaoqing, Curbed, 23 May 2021
Others who wouldn’t give their name called the mask mandate stupid or worse.
—Sonia Chopra, The Enquirer, 8 July 2020
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘stupid.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
I’m hard-pressed to think of a POSITIVE word for «stupid». How could being stupid be a good thing? (Well, it might be good for me for someone else to be stupid, so that I can defeat him in some competition or take advantage of him, but it’s not good for him.)
The closest to a postive word that I can think of is «simple». Like you might say, «Yeah, yeah, you have all these complex arguments, but I’m a simple guy, it just seems to me that …» «Simple» is sometimes used when you want to say that another person is being too clever, perhaps making something more complicated than it needs to be, or is trying to fool others by using fancy language to cover up a fallacy.
A common euphemism is «slow». As in, «We’ll be offerring tutoring sessions to help the slow students pass this class.» When I was in school it was common to talk about the smart kids as «gifted students» and the dumb kids as «slow students». I don’t know if these terms are still common.
Another euphemism was that class for less-smart kids were called «special education», and so the kids were called «special».
You could use «silly» or «cute» in some contexts.
But in general, I’d avoid looking for any word that means anything remotely like «stupid» if you’re trying to keep a conversation friendly. Maybe there’s a word in Spanish that would be perceived in a friendly way, but I don’t think there’s such a word in English. You can try to make it less offensive by using euphemisms, but it’s still an insult.
Table of Contents
- What is a synonym for stupid?
- What is this word stupid?
- What does stupid mean in slang?
- What does stupid is as stupid does mean?
- What is the origin of stupid?
- What disease did Forrest Gump have?
- Where is the Jenny boat from Forrest Gump?
- Who played Forrest Gump Jr?
- Who is the boy in sixth sense?
- How many Oscars did Forrest Gump win?
- Did Jenny and Forrest get married?
- What is Forrest Gump’s famous line?
- How much did Forrest Gump make at the box office?
- Who gets paid the most in a movie?
- Did Forrest Gump lose money?
- What is Tom Hanks net worth?
- How much is Steven Spielberg worth?
- Who is the richest actor right now?
50 words
What is a synonym for stupid?
SYNONYMS. unintelligent, ignorant, dense, brainless, mindless, foolish, dull-witted, dull, slow-witted, witless, slow, dunce-like, simple-minded, empty-headed, vacuous, vapid, half-witted, idiotic, moronic, imbecilic, imbecile, obtuse, doltish.
What is this word stupid?
adjective, stu·pid·er, stu·pid·est. characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless: a stupid question. tediously dull, especially due to lack of meaning or sense; inane; pointless: a stupid party. in a state of stupor; stupefied: stupid from fatigue.
What does stupid mean in slang?
Since at least the 1960s, stupid has been slang for “very” or “extremely,” … “to a ridiculous extent.” In the 1980s, fresh became a generic slang term of approval, like cool or sick.
What does stupid is as stupid does mean?
Forrest Gump replied “Stupid is as stupid does”, meaning that a person should be judged by his actions, not his appearance. …
What is the origin of stupid?
The root word stupid, which can serve as an adjective or noun, comes from the Latin verb stupere, for being numb or astonished, and is related to stupor. In Roman culture, the stupidus was the professional fall guy in the theatrical mimes.
What disease did Forrest Gump have?
poliomyelitis
Where is the Jenny boat from Forrest Gump?
Forrest’s shrimp boat, which he affectionately calls “Jenny,” once belonged to local Beaufort shrimper Jimmy Stanley. The boat is now on display at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Downtown Disney, part of Disneyworld in Orlando.
Who played Forrest Gump Jr?
Haley Joel OsmentForrest Gump
Who is the boy in sixth sense?
Haley Joel Osment
How many Oscars did Forrest Gump win?
six Oscars
Did Jenny and Forrest get married?
As Forrest is finally reunited with Jenny, she introduces him to their son, named Forrest Gump, Jr. Jenny tells Forrest she is sick with an “unknown virus” and the three move back to Greenbow. Jenny and Forrest finally marry, but she dies a year later.
What is Forrest Gump’s famous line?
Forrest Gump: Life is like a box a chocolate, you never know what your going to get. Forrest Gump: Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. Forrest Gump: My mama says that stupid is as stupid does.
How much did Forrest Gump make at the box office?
683.1 million USD
Who gets paid the most in a movie?
10 Highest-Paid Movie Roles of All Time
- Keanu Reeves: ‘The Matrix’
- Robert Downey Jr.: ‘Avengers: Infinity War’
- Tom Cruise: ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’
- Sandra Bullock: ‘Gravity’
- Johnny Depp: ‘Alice in Wonderland’
- Harrison Ford: ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’
- Adam Sandler: ‘The Ridiculous Six’
Did Forrest Gump lose money?
Larry Gerbrandt, a senior analyst with Paul Kagan Associates, figures “Gump” could generate up to $350 million in cash flow for Paramount’s parent, Viacom, Inc. But, believe it or not, the film lost money. That’s right. By Hollywood standards it “lost” money, $62 million through Dec 31, 1994.
What is Tom Hanks net worth?
| Net Worth: | $400 Million |
|---|---|
| Age: | 64 |
| Born: | July 9, 1956 |
| Country of Origin: | United States of America |
| Source of Wealth: | Professional Actor |
How much is Steven Spielberg worth?
3.7 billion USD (2021)
Who is the richest actor right now?
Dwayne Johnson
- stupid
- 1. [ʹstju:pıd] разг.
дурак
you little stupid! — ах ты дурачок!
2. [ʹstju:pıd]
1. глупый, тупой, бестолковый; дурацкий
stupid man — глупый /тупой, бестолковый/ человек
stupid idea — нелепая идея
stupid error — досадная ошибка
to give a stupid answer — дать глупый /бестолковый/ ответ
to do a stupid thing — сделать глупость
how stupid of me! — как глупо с моей стороны!
2. скучный
stupid party [letter, town] — скучная /неинтересная/ вечеринка [-ое письмо, -ый город]
3. оцепеневший
to get /to grow/ stupid — оцепенеть
to drink oneself stupid — напиться до полного отупения
stupid with sleep — осоловелый
still stupid from sedation — ещё не пришедший в себя от наркоза
as stupid as an owl /as a donkey, as a goose/ — ≅ глуп как пробка
Новый большой англо-русский словарь.
2001.
Полезное
Смотреть что такое «stupid» в других словарях:
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stupid — adj Stupid, slow, dull, dense, crass, dumb are comparable when they mean conspicuously lacking in intelligence or power to absorb ideas or impressions or exhibiting such a lack. Stupid can apply to a sluggish slow witted lack of intelligence,… … New Dictionary of Synonyms
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Stupid — is an adjective meaning lacking in intelligence. (See Stupidity)Stupid may also refer to: * Stupid (band), a punk rock band from Brooklyn * Stupid (art movement), a group of artists in Cologne in the 1920s * Stupid (song), the second single from… … Wikipedia
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stupid — [sto͞o′pid, styo͞o′pid] adj. [L stupidus < stupere, to be stunned or amazed < IE * steup , to strike: see STEEP1] 1. in a state of stupor; dazed; stunned; stupefied 2. lacking normal intelligence or understanding; slow witted; dull 3.… … English World dictionary
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stupid — STUPÍD, Ă, stupizi, de, adj. 1. (Adesea adverbial) Lipsit de sens, de raţiune, de conţinut; absurd. 2. (Despre oameni) Lipsit de inteligenţă, greoi la minte; nătâng, mărginit; (despre manifestări ale oamenilor) care dovedeşte, trădează lipsă de… … Dicționar Român
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Stupid — Stu pid, a. [L. stupidus, fr. stupere to be stupefied: cf. F. stupide.] 1. Very dull; insensible; senseless; wanting in understanding; heavy; sluggish; in a state of stupor; said of persons. [1913 Webster] O that men . . . should be so stupid… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
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Stupid — «Stupid» Canción de Raven Symoné con Sean Garrett Álbum Raven Symoné Publicación 2008 Gra … Wikipedia Español
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stupid — Adj dumm, geistlos erw. fremd. Erkennbar fremd (18. Jh.) Entlehnung. Entlehnt aus frz. stupide, dieses aus l. stupidus, zu l. stupēre erstarrt sein, staunen . Abstraktum: Stupididät. Ebenso nndl. stupide, ne. stupid, nschw. stupid, nnorw.… … Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache
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stupid — (adj.) 1540s, mentally slow, from M.Fr. stupide, from L. stupidus amazed, confounded, lit. struck senseless, from stupere be stunned, amazed, confounded, from PIE * (s)tupe hit, from root * (s)teu (see STEEP (Cf. steep) (adj.)). Native words for… … Etymology dictionary
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stupid — ► ADJECTIVE (stupider, stupidest) 1) lacking intelligence or common sense. 2) informal used to express exasperation or boredom: your stupid paintings! 3) dazed and unable to think clearly. DERIVATIVES stupidity noun stupidly adverb … English terms dictionary
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Stupīd — (lat.), stumpfsinnig, dumm; Stupidität, Dummheit, s. Geistesschwäche … Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon
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Stupid — Stupīd (lat.), stumpfsinnig, dumm; Stupidität, Stumpfsinnigkeit … Kleines Konversations-Lexikon