Standard Lemma guide

daft

adj · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /dɑːft/
  • General-American, Northern-England: dăft
  • General-American, Northern-England: /dæft/
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɑːft
  • rhymes with -æft
  • CMU ARPABET: D AE1 F T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Foolish, silly, stupid.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, Ireland, New-Zealand, UK, informal

Examples

  • a daft idea

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: asinine, balmy, barmy, bedaft, loony, daft, derpy, dim-headed, dim-witted, dopey, dull-headed, dull-witted, dumb, duncical, fatuous, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, gauvison, goofy, idiotic, idle, insipient, mookish, naive, silly, simple, slight, slow-witted, softheaded, soft in the head, sottish, stupid, thick, unsage, unwise, wool-headed, woolly-headed, woolly-minded, crackpot, dense

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Crazy, insane, mad.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, Ireland, New-Zealand, UK, informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: 5150, bananas, barking, barking mad, buggish, buggy, bughouse, barmy, batchy, batpoop, bats, batty, bonkers, bread baskets, cracked, crackers, cra-cra, cray, cray-cray, crazed, crazy, crazy as a bedbug, crazy as a cootie, crazy as a cootie bug, crazy as a pet coon, cuckoo, daffy, daft, demented, deranged, distraught, disturbed, doolally, dotty, eccentric, fruit loops, gaga, hatstand, harebrained, insane, kooky, loon, loco, loony, loony tunes, loopy, lunatic, mad, mental, mentally ill, meshigener, meshugge, moonsick, nerts, non compos mentis, nonsane, nucking futs, nut job, nutballs, nut, nuts, nutso, nutty, nutter, off the beam, off the chain, over the edge, potty, psycho, psychoceramic, psychotic, sicko, screwy, squirrelly, starkers, tonto, unbalanced, unsane, wackadoodle, weird, whackjob, whacko, whacky, wode, yampy, zany, apeshit, batcrap, batshit, bat-shit, fucked in the head, fucked up, ripshit

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Gentle, meek, mild.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective satellite

Meaning 4

informal or slang terms for mentally irregular

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • it used to drive my husband balmy

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: balmy, barmy, bats, batty, bonkers, buggy, cracked, crackers, dotty, fruity, haywire, kooky, kookie, loco, loony, loopy, nuts, nutty, round the bend, around the bend, wacky, whacky

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English dafte, defte (“gentle; having good manners; humble, modest; awkward; dull; boorish”), from Old English dæfte (“accommodating; gentle, meek, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *daftī (“fitting, suitable”). Related to Old English dafnian, dafenian (“to be fitting, appropriate, or becoming”), Russian до́брый (dóbryj, “good”). Doublet of deft. Compare silly which originally meant “blessed; good, innocent; pitiful; weak”, but now means “laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance; mentally simple, foolish”. Unrelated to, though perhaps influenced by, daff (“fool (n.); to be foolish (v.)”) (past form daffed).

Across languages

Translations

67 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: неразумен (nerazumen) — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Cornish: gocki — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Czech: praštěný — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Czech: pitomý — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Danish: åndssvag — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Danish: latterlig — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Dutch: dwaas — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Dutch: idioot — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • French: dingue — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • French: branque — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • German: albern — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Irish: amaideach — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Italian: balordo — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Italian: balzano — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Manx: meecheeallagh — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Māori: rūrūwai — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Portuguese: sandeu — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Scottish Gaelic: faoin — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Spanish: tonto — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Swedish: fånig — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Swedish: löjlig — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Swedish: tramsig — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Welsh: ffôl — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Welsh: twp — foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly
  • Bulgarian: побъркан (pobǎrkan) — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Bulgarian: ненормален (nenormalen) — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Cebuano: buang — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Czech: praštěný — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Dutch: waanzinnig — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Dutch: gek — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • French: cinglé — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • German: verrückt — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Italian: pazzoide — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Latvian: jucis — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Manx: meecheeallagh — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Polish: zwariowany — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Portuguese: louco — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Russian: сумасше́дший (sumasšédšij) — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Russian: рехнувшийся (rexnuvšijsja) — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Russian: безрассудный (bezrassudnyj) — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Slovene: nor — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Slovene: besen — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Spanish: loco — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Swedish: sinnessjuk — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Swedish: galen — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Turkish: deli — crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad
  • Bulgarian: глупав (glupav) — stupid — see also stupid
  • Cornish: gocki — stupid — see also stupid
  • Czech: blbý — stupid — see also stupid
  • Czech: hloupý — stupid — see also stupid
  • Danish: dum — stupid — see also stupid
  • French: simplet — stupid — see also stupid
  • German: blöd — stupid — see also stupid
  • German: bescheuert — stupid — see also stupid
  • German: doof — stupid — see also stupid
  • Italian: stupido — stupid — see also stupid
  • Italian: scemo — stupid — see also stupid
  • Latvian: stulbs — stupid — see also stupid
  • Latvian: muļķis — stupid — see also stupid
  • Latvian: aušīgs — stupid — see also stupid
  • Portuguese: estúpido — stupid — see also stupid
  • Russian: глу́пый (glúpyj) — stupid — see also stupid
  • Russian: слабоумный (slaboumnyj) — stupid — see also stupid
  • Slovene: neumen — stupid — see also stupid
  • Slovene: zabit — stupid — see also stupid
  • Spanish: estúpido — stupid — see also stupid
  • Swedish: dum — stupid — see also stupid