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moronic

UK/mɔːˈɹɒnɪk/US/mɔɹˈɑnɪk/
adjectiveB2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans spokeninformal · an editor’s judgement

Moronic means so stupid it makes you groan. A moronic joke, a moronic thing to attempt with a ladder.

It is an insult and a blunt one, so it lands harder than silly or daft. You can call an idea moronic, a rule moronic, a whole plan moronic — and applying it to a person is stronger still. The noun moron is blunter again. The word began life a century ago as a medical classification, which is exactly why it feels cruel now, and worth knowing before you aim it at anybody.

Definitions of moronic

  1. 1adjectivemoronicExtremely stupid.B2

    “It was a moronic idea from the start.”

    synonyms: idiotic, asinine

Where it comes from

From moron + -ic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

moronic in the wild

  • Bevirimat, a derivative of the related triterpenoid betulinic acid, is under development as an anti-HIV drug; however, moronic acid has shown better antiviral profiles in vitro than bevirimat.

    Moronic acid

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.