dunce

noun

ˈdən(t)s 

: a slow-witted or stupid person

Did you know?

The irony of dunce lies in the fact that this synonym of dullard is derived from the name of one of the most brilliant thinkers of the Middle Ages, John Duns Scotus. So ingenious were the theological and metaphysical speculations of this thinker that he was given the name “the Subtle Doctor.” However, in the 16th century, his followers became a conservative element in English universities, and they tended to resist the new learning of humanism. As result, dunsman and the shortened form duns (later respelled as we have it today), became terms of scorn, meaning first “sophist” or “pedant” and gradually taking on the modern sense “slow-witted person.”

Synonyms

• airhead
• birdbrain
• blockhead
• bonehead
• bubblehead
• chowderhead
• chucklehead
• clodpoll
• clodpole
• clot [British]
• cluck
• clunk
• cretin
• cuddy [British dialect]
• cuddie
• deadhead
• dim bulb [slang]
• dimwit
• dip
• dodo
• dolt
• donkey
• doofus [slang]
• dope
• dork [slang]
• dullard
• dum-dum
• dumbbell
• dumbhead
• dummkopf
• dummy
• dunderhead
• fathead
• gander
• golem
• goof
• goon
• half-wit
• hammerhead
• hardhead
• idiot
• ignoramus
• imbecile
• jackass
• know-nothing
• knucklehead
• lamebrain
• loggerhead [chiefly dialect]
• loon
• lump
• lunkhead
• meathead
• mome [archaic]
• moron
• mug [chiefly British]
• mutt
• natural
• nimrod [slang]
• nincompoop
• ninny
• ninnyhammer
• nit [chiefly British]
• nitwit
• noddy
• noodle
• numskull
• numbskull
• oaf
• pinhead
• prat [British]
• ratbag [chiefly Australian]
• saphead
• schlub [slang]
• shlub
• schnook [slang]
• simpleton
• stock
• stupe
• stupid
• thickhead
• turkey
• woodenhead
• yahoo
• yo-yo

Examples of dunce in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The peewee population interacted with each other in various settings and included bocce bowlers, bare-bottomed peasants, baguette bakers, blind men, the mustachioed mayor, female fishmongers, dunce hat-wearing schoolboys, snail saleswomen, and gobs more characters. —Gqlshare, Orange County Register, 15 Jan. 2025

How could a society judge each individual on his or her own merits when rich dunces enjoyed the best educations and poor geniuses left school as children to work as chimney sweeps? —John Micklethwait, Foreign Affairs, 29 May 2014

Go sit in the dunce corner and put the dunce cap on. —Dana Rose Falcone, People.com, 25 Dec. 2024

In 1999, England was the dunce of Test cricket, sitting at the bottom of the class after Stephen Fleming’s tourists beat them 2-1 during that summer. —Tim Ellis, Forbes, 26 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

John Duns Scotus, whose once accepted writings were ridiculed in the 16th century

First Known Use

1567, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing dunce

• dunce cap

Kids Definition

dunce

noun

ˈdən(t)s 

: a mentally dull or stupid person

Etymology

an altered form of earlier duns, from the name John Duns Scotus 1266?–1308 a Scottish religious teacher whose writings came to be ridiculed in the 16th century