dunce
English · Thesaurus
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.
dunce
- /dʌns/
Rhymes with -ʌns
Where it comes from
1530, named after John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308). Scotus was ironically a well-known Scottish thinker; his followers, however, opposed the philosophers of the Renaissance, and thus "dunce" was first used to describe someone rejecting new knowledge in 1530; later, any person deemed stupid.
noun dunces
-
An unintelligent person.
When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
Similar: idiot, addle-brain, addlehead, addle pate, airhead, baboon, beanbrain, beetlebrain, beetlehead, berk, bimbo, birdbrain
Translations
Talk about this word "dunce." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/dunce. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. dunce. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/dunce "dunce." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/dunce.Cite this
@misc{dunce_2026,
title = {dunce},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dunce},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
