Standard Lemma guide

fatuous

adj · 2 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: /ˈfæt.ju.əs/
  • General-American: /ˈfæ.tʃu.əs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: F AE1 CH AH0 W AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Obnoxiously stupid; vacantly silly; content in one's foolishness.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: vacuous, addlebrained, addlepated, airheaded, bee-brained, beef-witted, beefheaded, beetle-headed, birdbrained, blockheaded, Boeotian, boneheaded, boofheaded, braindead, brainless, bubbleheaded, buffle-headed, bullet-headed, cerebrally challenged, childish, chowderheaded, chuckleheaded, crackbrained, cretinous, daft, dense, dented, dim-bulb, dim-headed, dim-witted, dim, doltish, dopey, dozy, drowsy, dull-headed, dull-minded, dull-witted, dull, dumber than a box of rocks, dumb, dunderheaded, empty-headed, fatheaded, feeble-minded, flea-brained, foolish, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, goofy, half-brained, half-witted, hammer-headed, idiotic, ignorant, imbecilic, inane, insipid, intellectually challenged, knuckleheaded, lamebrained, lowbrow, lumpish, lunkheaded, mentally challenged, mentally retarded, mindless, monosynaptic, moronic, muttonheaded, nitwitted, numbskulled, oafish, obtuse, peabrained, pratty, pudding-headed, puerile, purblind, quarter-witted, retarded, ridiculous, rockheaded, sharp as a bowling ball, sheep-headed, silly, simple, slow, slow on the uptake, slow-witted, smooth-brained, stolid, stupid, thick-skulled, thickheaded, thickwitted, thick, unapprehensive, unclever, uninformed, unintelligent, unsmart, vacant, witless, wooden-headed, wool-headed, woolly-headed, woolly-minded, dumb as a bag of hammers, dumb as a box of rocks, dumb as a doorknob, dumb as an ox, dumb as a post, dumb as a sack of hammers, dumb as dirt, dumber than a rock, not the sharpest crayon in the box, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, not the sharpest tool in the shed, thick as a brick, thick as a plank, thick as champ, thick as mince, thick as two short planks, thick as a whale omelette, ass-brained, fuckwitted, shit-for-brains, thick as pig shit

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

devoid of intelligence

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: asinine, inane, mindless, vacuous

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Latin fatuus (“foolish, silly, simple”).

Across languages

Translations

49 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: տխմար (txmar) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Bulgarian: глу́пав (glúpav) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Bulgarian: безсми́слен (bezsmíslen) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Chinese Mandarin: 愚笨 (yúbèn) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Chinese Mandarin: 蠢的 (chǔn de) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Chinese Mandarin: 愚昧 (yúmèi) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Czech: hloupý — obnoxiously stupid
  • Czech: pitomý — obnoxiously stupid
  • Dutch: dwaas — obnoxiously stupid
  • Dutch: onwijs — obnoxiously stupid
  • Estonian: kohtlane — obnoxiously stupid
  • Finnish: älytön — obnoxiously stupid
  • Finnish: typerä — obnoxiously stupid
  • French: imbécile — obnoxiously stupid
  • French: stupide — obnoxiously stupid
  • French: niais — obnoxiously stupid
  • German: töricht — obnoxiously stupid
  • German: albern — obnoxiously stupid
  • Greek: ανόητος (anóitos) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Greek: κουτός (koutós) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Hungarian: ostoba — obnoxiously stupid
  • Hungarian: balga — obnoxiously stupid
  • Hungarian: dőre — obnoxiously stupid
  • Hungarian: oktalan — obnoxiously stupid
  • Hungarian: oktondi — obnoxiously stupid
  • Indonesian: bodoh — obnoxiously stupid
  • Indonesian: tolol — obnoxiously stupid
  • Indonesian: dungu — obnoxiously stupid
  • Irish: baoth — obnoxiously stupid
  • Irish: díchéillí — obnoxiously stupid
  • Irish: amadánta — obnoxiously stupid
  • Irish: baothánta — obnoxiously stupid
  • Italian: fatuo — obnoxiously stupid
  • Japanese: 愚かな (oroka na) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Latin: fatuus — obnoxiously stupid
  • Latin: stultus — obnoxiously stupid
  • Macedonian: глу́пав (glúpav) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Macedonian: бе́смислен (bésmislen) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Plautdietsch: sennlooss — obnoxiously stupid
  • Polish: głupi — obnoxiously stupid
  • Polish: niedorzeczny — obnoxiously stupid
  • Portuguese: fátuo — obnoxiously stupid
  • Russian: глу́пый (glúpyj) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Russian: дура́цкий (duráckij) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Russian: бессмы́сленный (bessmýslennyj) — obnoxiously stupid
  • Scottish Gaelic: baoth — obnoxiously stupid
  • Scottish Gaelic: amaideach — obnoxiously stupid
  • Scottish Gaelic: gòrach — obnoxiously stupid
  • Spanish: fatuo — obnoxiously stupid