foolishness

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈfuːlɪʃnəs/ UK /ˈfuːlɪʃnəs/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
lack of good sense; silly behavior

His youthful foolishness eventually gave way to caution.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · lack of good sense; silly... folly silliness stupidity absurdity nonsense imprudence idiocy senselessness

Opposites

wisdom sense prudence sagacitysensibleness

Word family

Related forms fool foolish foolishly

Etymology

From foolish (from Middle English fol, fool, from Old French fol) plus the noun-forming suffix -ness. Old French fol derives from Late Latin follis ('bellows, windbag'), used figuratively of an empty-headed person.

follis Latin -ness Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

# foolishness

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈfuːlɪʃnəs
**IPA (UK):** ˈfuːlɪʃnəs

## Meanings
1. lack of good sense; silly behavior

## Examples
- His youthful foolishness eventually gave way to caution.

## Synonyms
- folly
- silliness
- stupidity
- absurdity
- nonsense
- imprudence
- idiocy
- senselessness

## Antonyms
- wisdom
- sense
- prudence
- sagacity
- sensibleness

## Related Forms
- fool
- foolish
- foolishly

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: follis
- Root: -ness

## Etymology
From foolish (from Middle English fol, fool, from Old French fol) plus the noun-forming suffix -ness. Old French fol derives from Late Latin follis ('bellows, windbag'), used figuratively of an empty-headed person.

## AI Etymology
Foolishness is from foolish (from Middle English fol, fool, from Old French fol) plus the noun-forming suffix -ness. Old French fol derives from Late Latin follis ('bellows, windbag'), used figuratively of an empty-headed person. Important recorded forms include follis (Latin) and -ness (Old English). Morphologically, the word is a built form whose named elements carry part of the historical sense. The current sense covers lack of good sense; silly behavior. The wider family includes related words such as fool, foolish, and foolishly.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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foolishness

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