idiocy

English

Alternative forms

• idiotcy (archaic)

Etymology

From French idiotie, from Old French idiot. Displaced earlier idiotacy, idiotry. Equivalent to idiot +‎ -cy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪdi.əsi/

• Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

idiocy (countable and uncountable, plural idiocies)

1. (dated, psychology, now derogatory) The state or condition of being an idiot; the quality of having an intelligence level far below average; mental retardation; intellectual disability.
2. (uncountable) Lack of intelligence or sense; extremely foolish behaviour.

   Synonyms: imbecility, stupidity

   The administrators, growing tired of such idiocy, put a new policy in place.

3. (countable) An idiotic act or utterance.

   The list of his idiocies is seemingly interminable.

Synonyms

• idiocity (nonstandard)
• idiotacy (nonstandard)
• idiotcy (dated)
• idiotery (nonstandard, rare)
• idioticalness (rare)
• idioticity (nonstandard)
• idioticness (rare)
• idioticy (nonstandard)
• idiotness (rare)
• idiotry (obsolete)

 

Derived terms

• artificial idiocy
• Mongolian idiocy

 

Related terms

• idiocracy
• idiot
• idiotic
• idiotically

 

Translations

state of being an idiot

• Bulgarian: идиотия f (idiotija)
• Catalan: idiòcia f, estupidesa (ca) f
• Chichewa: utsiru
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 白痴 (zh) (báichī)

• Czech: idiocie (cs) f
• Danish: idioti
• Esperanto: idioteco
• Finnish: tylsämielisyys (fi), idiotia, idioottimaisuus (fi)
• French: idiotie (fr) f
• German: Idiotie (de) f
• Greek: ηλιθιότητα (el) f (ilithiótita), ιδιωτεία (el) f (idioteía)
• Italian: stupidità (it) f
• Manx: meecheealaght f, meecheeallid m, ommidys m
• Occitan: idiocia f
• Portuguese: idiotice (pt) f, estupidez (pt) f
• Russian: идиоти́зм (ru) m (idiotízm), идио́тство (ru) n (idiótstvo)
• Spanish: idiotez (es) f, estupidez (es) f
• Tagalog: kaungasan
• Ukrainian: ідіоти́зм m (idiotýzm)
• Volapük: diot (vo)

extremely foolish behaviour

• Bulgarian: идиотщина (bg) f (idiotština)
• Middle English: sotie, sotschipe
• Ukrainian: ідіоти́зм m (idiotýzm)

References

• “idiocy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• dioicy