as in idiot
a stupid person
only an imbecile would leave their car unlocked, with the keys in the ignition, and then be surprised when the vehicle was stolen
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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or imbecilic
as in idiotic
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Recent Examples of imbecile
Sam Sacks, WSJ, 18 Nov. 2016
Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.
—Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2016
Steve Lopez Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 7 May 2021
Noun
Evil is insolent and strong; beauty enchanting but rare; goodness very apt to be weak; folly very apt to be defiant; wickedness to carry the day; imbeciles to be in great places, people of sense in small, and mankind generally unhappy.
—Sam Sacks, WSJ, 18 Nov. 2016
Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.
—Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2016
Adjective
But Newsom was voted into office by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, and he’s handled the unprecedented dual challenges of COVID-19 and climate change reasonably well and far better than the imbecile Trump.
—Steve Lopez Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 7 May 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for imbecile
Adjective
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Too many young people are making idiotic short-term financial decisions that hamper long-term success.Chandler Dean, The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2023
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Beyond the Lungs Two other cardiac cases impressed me — and blew away the idiotic notion that young people are immune to COVID-19.Tony Dajer, Discover Magazine, 30 July 2020
Noun
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An underrated gem — not enough people have seen this top-tier season — Squirrels Trip has some fabulous vocals, very funny lyrics, a heavy dose of stupid, and an engaging story.Barry Levitt, Vulture, 19 Apr. 2024
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The stupid!Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 2 July 2021
Adjective
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Ratajkowski has been fighting the stereotype of the dumb model from the beginning of her career.Daniel Jackson, Allure, 18 July 2017
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Ninety nine percent of all NFL players are explicitly not dumb.Andy Benoit, The MMQB, 10 July 2017
Adjective
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If he can be had for under $10 million a year, the Yankees would be foolish to not pursue that idea.Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 6 Dec. 2024
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What a degrading finale for Biden’s feeble, forgettable, frequently foolish presidency.Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 3 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Even in light of how argumentative Suzie has been with Detective Neck Brace, this inane comment feels like gaslighting.Chris Klimek, Vulture, 7 Aug. 2024
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Perhaps counterintuitively, Succession’s depiction of the workings of the digital media industry as ruthless and inane has actually motivated real digital media workers to actively interact with the show online.Amos Barshad, WIRED, 26 May 2023
Adjective
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This fatuous facial gesture is immediately relatable but also, as Locke discusses below, one that can be read in a number of different ways.Andy Battaglia, ARTnews.com, 20 Nov. 2024
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Schools must accept that mission statements without curriculum alignment are fatuous; the way schools define themselves is through the experience that flows from their curriculum.Ray Ravaglia, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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By most accounts, Trump’s ground game—powered by the witless Musk—was a bit of a mess, but Harris’s professional field operation seems to have been helpless to stem the tide of Trump’s support.The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2024
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But apparently, California just couldn’t abide this challenge to its primacy as the most witless state in the union.Noah Rothman, National Review, 23 Sep. 2024
Adjective
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Altman’s is a plainly asinine claim; a bunch of code running in a data center is not the same as a brain.Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 6 Dec. 2024
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Comedy videos about customer service and asinine Atlanta eatery rules were already popular on TikTok but have seen major pickup since Lee’s viral videos.CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 1 Nov. 2023
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Cite this Entry
“Imbecile.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/imbecile. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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