1
as in insanity
a foolish act or idea
investing in that company now would be foolery
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in joking
wildly playful or mischievous behavior
let the kids have a little foolery once in a while
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Recent Examples of foolery
Eric Andre, Tyler the Creator and Machine Gun Kelly all drop by to participate in the Jack-foolery.
—
David Fear, Rolling Stone, 2 Feb. 2022
The whole of humanity doesn’t fit tidily into three acts, even assuming as much frame-breaking foolery as Wilder allows.
—New York Times, 25 Apr. 2022
Political pranking is traditionally thought of as benign foolery targeting the powerful.
—Stanislav Budnitsky, The Conversation, 19 Apr. 2022
Our magpie eyes will always be drawn to foolery and ephemera.
—Giles Hattersley, Vogue, 13 Dec. 2021
Once every ten years, the first of April assumes a far more significant importance than the annual sharing of April foolery.
—James Deutsch, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Apr. 2020
All the organs of his body were working — bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming — all toiling away in solemn foolery.
—John Hirschauer, National Review, 17 Sep. 2019
In memory, during that long-ago evening on the edge of the woods, even my young children were drawn into its whirligig of shipwrecks, twins in disguise, misread letters, wise foolery and foolish wisdom.
—Edward Rothstein, WSJ, 11 July 2019
Elsewhere, the lack of physicality that muted the foolery also seemed a factor affecting many actors’ deliveries.
—Edward Rothstein, WSJ, 11 July 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for foolery
Noun
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The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.—
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Our Rox are a walking bundle of baseball insanity, Looney Tunes from the top down.—
Noun
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For all his tomfoolery before and after PKs, Loons director of goalkeeping Tom Fawdry was impressed with St. Clair’s poise in the big moment.—
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Venerable baby boomer Kevin Bacon plays the titular bounty hunter Hub Halloran, a proud Georgia man with little tolerance for tomfoolery and a hatred of the Red Sox.—
Noun
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Sure, The Critic had its fair sure of absurdity (one character was from Easter Island and bore a striking resemblance to a moai statue), but the New York in which it was set felt real in a way that Springfield or Quahog never did.—
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Featuring intertwining narratives of doctors and patients, the film also includes a group of doctors-turned-comedians who use humor to highlight the absurdities of the system.—
Noun
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His is a sort of erudite buffoonery that consistently tap-dances between clever, self-aware, and patently stupid.—
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There is, in fact, real stagecraft along with the buffoonery.—
Noun
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The scene only lasts about 20 seconds, but captures the madness Poheler and Jones describe, especially in a shot of Offerman bucking Poehler around as if by a bull.—
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While flooding the zone with executive orders and breaking news in the form of planned chaos, there is generally a method to the madness.—
Noun
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The action anime feature for everyone who couldn’t get enough of the horseplay in The Two Towers has finally cantered onto Max.—
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Key speeches are faithfully delivered to an audience of two, not thousands; a scene of soldiers destructively revelling on a bridge is given a different spirit by ironic, out-of-time horseplay.—
Noun
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Tirhakah Love is a senior writer at New York Magazine and the host of the new evening newsletter Dinner Party, a daily email that touches on all things entertainment — that means film, television, music, tech, and gaming — plus politics and corporate clownery.—
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The Winx Club live action is a big clownery!—
Noun
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His film debut came in the slapstick comedy Top Secret!—
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The main romance is dull, but there’s plenty of fun slapstick and creative set-pieces in John Hughes’ script to make up for it.—
Cite this Entry
“Foolery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/foolery. Accessed 9 Apr. 2025.
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