foolish

[foo-lish]

adjective

1. resulting from or showing a lack of sense; ill-considered: unwise.

   a foolish action;

   a foolish speech.

   Synonyms: thoughtless, imprudent, preposterous, nonsensical, absurd, ridiculous, unintelligent, senseless, brainless, witless, stupid

2. lacking forethought or caution.

   Synonyms: thoughtless, imprudent, incautious, heedless, half-baked, foolhardy, reckless, rash, impetuous

3. trifling, insignificant, or paltry.

   Synonyms: picayune, trivial

foolish

/ ˈfuːlɪʃ /

adjective

1. unwise; silly

2. resulting from folly or stupidity

3. ridiculous or absurd; not worthy of consideration

4. weak-minded; simple

5. an archaic word for insignificant

Other Word Forms

• foolishly adverb
• foolishness noun
• overfoolish adjective
• overfoolishly adverb
• quasi-foolish adjective
• quasi-foolishly adverb
• unfoolish adjective
• unfoolishly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of foolish¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; from Middle English folish, foolish; fool ¹, -ish ¹

Idioms and Phrases

see penny wise and pound foolish.

Example Sentences

The Dodgers were getting good pitching, with Glasnow striking out four of his first five batters while pumping increased fastball velocity and generating foolish swings with his slider.

From Los Angeles Times

Loving is the most insane, foolish and utterly soul-consuming thing we could ever do.

From Salon

The institutions are still robust enough, we tell each other, and it’s foolish and destructive to talk about socialism or police abolition or a radical restructuring of society.

From Salon

Italy are the lowest-ranked team left in the tournament at 13th in the Fifa rankings, but after their impressive performance against Norway in the last eight it would be foolish to underestimate them.

From BBC

"I'd switched off that part of my brain when raising a daughter. That was a mistake. I felt foolish. I had to switch it back on again fairly quickly."

From BBC

Related Words

• absurd 
• crazy 
• fantastic 
• ill-advised 
• insane 
• irrational 
• ludicrous 
• preposterous 
• ridiculous 
• silly 
• stupid 
• unreasonable 
• unwise 

When To Use

What are other ways to say foolish?

A foolish action is one that shows a lack of sense or is ill-considered. How is foolish different from fatuous, silly, inane, stupid, and asinine? Find out on Thesaurus.com.