Adjacent Words

Dunce definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DUNCE, n. Duns. [G.] A person of weak intellects; a dullard; a dolt; a thickskull.
I never knew this town without dunces of figure.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence [syn: dunce, dunderhead, numskull, blockhead, bonehead, lunkhead, hammerhead, knucklehead, loggerhead, muttonhead, shithead, dumbass, fuckhead]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: John Duns Scotus, whose once accepted writings were ridiculed in the 16th century Date: 1570 a slow-witted or stupid person

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a person slow at learning; a dullard. Phrases and idioms: dunce's cap a paper cone formerly put on the head of a dunce at school as a mark of disgrace. Etymology: John Duns Scotus, scholastic theologian d. 1308, whose followers were ridiculed by 16th-c. humanists and reformers as enemies of learning

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dunce Dunce, n. [From Joannes Duns Scotus, a schoolman called the Subtle Doctor, who died in 1308. Originally in the phrase ``a Duns man''. See Note below.] One backward in book learning; a child or other person dull or weak in intellect; a dullard; a dolt. I never knew this town without dunces of figure. --Swift. Note: The schoolmen were often called, after their great leader Duns Scotus, Dunsmen or Duncemen. In the revival of learning they were violently opposed to classical studies; hence, the name of Dunce was applied with scorn and contempt to an opposer of learning, or to one slow at learning, a dullard.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(dunces) If you say that someone is a dunce, you think they are rather stupid because they find it difficult or impossible to learn what someone is trying to teach them. Michael may have been a dunce at mathematics, but he was gifted at languages. N-COUNT [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Simpleton, fool, dolt, ignoramus, witling, wiseacre, blockhead, block, numskull, dullard, thickhead, thick-skull, dunderhead, dunderpate, clodpoll, clodpate, beetle-head, bull-head, dull-head, addle-head, logger-head, chuckle-head, jolt-head, lack-brain, shallow-brain, moon-calf, lackwit, halfwit, oaf, changeling, booby, noodle, spooney, tony, nincompoop (colloq.), ninny, ninnyhammer, nonny, gaby, flat, sawney, driveller, noddy, natural, innocent, lout, stick, ass, jackass, donkey, owl, goose, coot, loon, calf, non-compos, stupid fellow, silly fellow.

Moby Thesaurus

Boeotian, block, blockhead, bonehead, boob, booby, bufflehead, cabbagehead, chowderhead, chucklehead, chump, clod, clodpate, clodpoll, cluck, dabbler, dilettante, dimwit, dodo, dolt, dolthead, donkey, dope, drip, duffer, dullard, dullhead, dumb, dumb cluck, dumbbell, dummy, fool, gowk, greenhorn, greeny, ignoramus, illiterate, illiterati, jobbernowl, know-nothing, lackwit, lamebrain, lightweight, looby, loon, lowbrow, middlebrow, niais, nincompoop, ninny, ninnyhammer, nitwit, no scholar, noddy, puddinghead, put, stupid, tenderfoot, thickwit, unintelligentsia, witling