cretin

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

cretin^¹

/ˈkɹɛtɪn/ UK
/ˈkɹiːtɪn/ US
/ˈkɹɛtɪn/ US

Sounds like Cretan (one pronunciation) · Rhymes with -ɛtɪn, (US) -iːtɪn

Where it comes from

From French crétin (“cretin, idiot”), likely from crestin, an Alpine dialectal form of chrétien, from Latin christiānus in the lost sense of “anyone in Christendom”, often with a sense of “poor fellow”. Doublet of Christian.

noun cretins

archaic A person who fails to develop mentally and physically due to a congenital hypothyroidism.
broadly, derogatory An idiot. When I challenged the symbolism, tried to make the professor consider the book as a piece of realism, he regarded me as if I were an absolute cretin. He got very supercilious and condescending […]

Cretin^²

proper noun

A surname.

Translations

Every language

noun person who fails to develop due to congenital hypothyroidism

Português	cretino
Français	crétin
Deutsch	Kretin
Ελληνικά	κρετίνος kretínos
Română	cretin, cretină
Русский	крети́н kretín

noun pejorative: an idiot

Español	cretino, cretina
Português	cretino
Français	crétin
Deutsch	Kretin
Italiano	cretino
Ελληνικά	κρετίνος kretínos, ηλίθιος ilíthios
Română	cretin, cretină
Русский	крети́н kretín, крети́нка kretínka

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"cretin." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/cretin. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

cretin. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/cretin

Chicago

"cretin." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/cretin.

BibTeX

@misc{cretin_2026,
  title = {cretin},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/cretin},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}