foolishness
noun
Simple meaning
The trait of acting stupidly or rashly.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
foolihshnuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfulɪʃnəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The quality of being rash and foolish
uncountable
The state of being foolish.
countable
A thing or event that is foolish, or an absurdity.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The quality of being rash and foolish
Used this way, foolishness is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.