fool
/fuːl/noun, verb, adjective
fool is spelled F-O-O-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,365th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a derogatory noun, fool means “A person with poor judgment or little intelligence” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fool is fools.
How many letters and syllables are in fool?
| Letters | 4: F-O-O-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 19 times per million words; the 4,365th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is fool?
Fool appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,365th 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 fool?
- UK /fuːl/
- British /fʉwl/
- British [fʊwl]
Fool has one syllable (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-fool.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Nattes_à_chat-fool.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with fool
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with fool?
7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as fool from its last stressed vowel (/ul/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: floo, loof.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of fool
- fools plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- fooling participle, present
- fooled participle, past
- fooler comparative
- more fool comparative
- foolest superlative
- most fool superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fool mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
derogatoryA person with poor judgment or little intelligence.
You were a fool to cross that busy road without looking.
- 2
A jester; a person whose role was to entertain a sovereign and the court (or lower personages).
- 3
A stock character typified by unintelligence, naïveté or lucklessness, usually as a form of comic relief; often used as a source of insight or pathos for the audience, as such characters are generally less bound by social expectations.
- 4
Someone who has been made a fool of or tricked; dupe.
- 5
informalSomeone who derives pleasure from something specified.
I'm a fool for the city.
- 6
slangAn informal greeting akin to buddy, dude, or man.
- 7
A particular card in a tarot deck, representing a jester.
- 8
A type of dessert made of puréed fruit and custard or cream.
an apricot fool; a gooseberry fool
verb
- 1
To trick; to deceive.
- 2
To act in an idiotic manner; to act foolishly.
- 3
archaicTo make a fool of; to make act the fool.
They fool me to the top of my bent.
adjective
- 1
informalFoolish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fool in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense person with poor judgement or little intelligence:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | andouille, abruti, couillon, dinde, imbécile, idiot |
| German | dumme Gans, Dummkopf, Narr, Närrin, Pute, Tor |
| Portuguese | bobo, burro, idiota, imbecil, tolo, pamonha |
| Spanish | bobo, gilí, imbécil, necio, pendejo, tonto |
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 fool come from?
From Middle English fol (“fool”), from Old French fol (cf. modern French fou (“mad”)) from Latin follis. Doublet of fals and follis. Displaced native Old English dwæs.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).