stupid
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Lacking or showing lack of intellectual acuity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
stoopuhdSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstupəd
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.
adjective
Lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity
of animates
Lacking in intelligence.
Exhibiting the quality of having been done by someone lacking in intelligence.
Without intelligence.
Unpleasant; annoying to the speaker. This sense can be used alongside obscene words.
To the point of stupor.
noun
A person who is not very bright
A stupid person; a fool.
colloquialuncountable
The condition or state of being stupid; stupidity, stupidness.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity
In this sense, stupid is a very strong, expressive word and lands as a direct insult about someone's intelligence.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Harsh or blunt
- Usage feel
- Blunt and forceful
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use stupid
- “That was a stupid mistake, and I need to learn from it.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A poor ability to understand or to profit from experience.
In a stupid manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A person who is not very bright.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: person who is not very bright
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.