asinine
/ˈæs.ɪ.naɪn/adjective
asinine is spelled A-S-I-N-I-N-E. The wrong spelling people search most is assinine: about 440 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Asinine is an adjective meaning “Very foolish; failing to exercise intelligence or judgement or rationality”.
How many letters and syllables are in asinine?
| Letters | 7: A-S-I-N-I-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 49,368th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, assinine, about 440 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell asinine?
Asinine is spelled A-S-I-N-I-N-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for asinine in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is asinine?
Asinine appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 49,368th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce asinine?
- US /ˈæs.ɪ.naɪn/
- US /ˈæs.ə.naɪn/
Asinine has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-asinine.ogg, En-au-asinine.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of asinine
- more asinine comparative
- most asinine superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does asinine mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Very foolish; failing to exercise intelligence or judgement or rationality.
- 2
Characteristic of an ass (an asshole): objectionably inconsiderate or jerky.
- 3
Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of donkeys.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Asinine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | asinin, stupide, insensé, crétin, débile, con |
| German | dumm, dümmlich, dämlich, töricht , eselig, eselhaft |
| Portuguese | asinino , asnal |
| Spanish | estúpido , asnal, asinino |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does asinine come from?
From Latin asinīnus (“of a donkey or ass”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).