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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

idiot.

A person of low general intelligence.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɪdiət/UK, US/ˈɪd͡ʒət/
  1. A person of low general intelligence.

    derogatory
    Only an idiot would fail this exam.
    After failing a hat-trick of exams, the teacher called him an idiot.
  2. A person who makes stupid decisions; a fool.

    derogatory
    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.
  3. 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
Where this word comes from

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.

adj/ˈɪdiət/UK, US/ˈɪd͡ʒət/
  1. Idiotic, stupid.

    uncommon
Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.