Skip to main content
PlainSpell

booby

/ˈbuːbi/noun, verb, adjective

booby is spelled B-O-O-B-Y: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,649th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, booby means “A stupid person” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of booby is boobies.

How many letters and syllables are in booby?

Letters5: B-O-O-B-Y
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 29,649th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is booby?

Booby appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,649th 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 booby?

  • /ˈbuːbi/

Booby has 2 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-booby.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of booby

  • boobies plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • boobying participle, present
  • boobied participle, past
  • more booby comparative
  • most booby superlative
  • boobier comparative
  • boobiest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does booby mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A stupid person.

  2. 2

    Any of various large tropical seabirds from the genera Sula and Papasula in the family Sulidae, traditionally considered to be stupid.

  3. 3

    In the game of croquet, a ball that has not passed through the first wicket.

  4. 4

    colloquialA breast.

verb

  1. 1

    rareTo behave stupidly; to act like a booby.

  2. 2

    To install a booby trap on or at (something); to attack (someone) with a booby trap.

adjective

  1. 1

    informalDisplaying breasts prominently.

  2. 2

    informalHaving large breasts.

  3. 3

    obsoleteslangStupid; unintelligent.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Booby in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanTölpel, Narr, Depp, Idiot (stupid person), Titte (woman’s breast)
Portuguesetolo (stupid person), mergulhão (bird)
Spanishtonto, pendejo, bobo (stupid person), teta, melón (woman’s breast), piquero (bird)
Frenchnéné, nibard, nichon, robert (woman’s breast), fou (bird)

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 booby come from?

17th century. From Spanish bobo, from Latin balbus (“stammering”). (bird): Compare typologically Translingual Morus, German Tölpel, Polish głuptak (akin to głupek), Russian о́луша (óluša) (akin to о́лух (ólux)).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after booby