stupid

stupid adj Stupid, slow, dull, dense, crass, dumb are comparable when they mean conspicuously lacking in intelligence or power to absorb ideas or impressions or exhibiting such a lack.

Stupid can apply to a sluggish slow-witted lack of intelligence, typically congenital or habitual, or it can apply to a usually more or less transitory benumbed or dazed state of mind that is typically the result of drunkenness, shock, or illness; although the term seldom is applied to the insame or the imbecile, it often also suggests senselessness

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stupid with age—Shak.

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stupid with drink

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he could not stand stupid people, especially those who are made stupid by education— Wilde

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there emerged gradually a picture of stupid chicanery and petty corruption for stupid and petty ends— Faulkner

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he had gone on for years deceiving himself— too proud, too self-conscious, maybe just too stupid to realize it— Styron

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Slow implies stupidity manifested especially in lack of quickness in comprehension or reaction; often the term is little more than a euphemistic substitute for stupid

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the too great length of neck and limb, which made him loose and slow in body, as he was somewhat loose and slow in mind— Kings ley

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offers slow or retarded boys an adjusted program of education— advt.

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Dull (see also DULL 2) suggests a labored slowness or sluggishness of mind that may be constitutional, or the result of lack of mental exercise, or of overwork, or of a physical condition, and is unrelieved by any hint of quickness, brightness, or liveliness

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there were cows and they looked at him dully with their great dull eyes— James Baldwin

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had a warm spot in his heart for this dull, stupid, fumbling man— Shirer

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find the book long-winded, incredibly boring . . . and deadly dull— John O' London's Weekly

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Dense implies a quality of mind that makes it impervious to ideas. Additionally it may imply qualities (as obtuseness or stolidity) that reveal lack of perception, sensitiveness, or subtlety

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a woman may be a fool, a sleepy fool, an agitated fool, a too awfully noxious fool, and she may even be simply stupid. But she is never dense— Conrad

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never offered to take me over the house, though I gave her the broadest hints. She's very dense— Clive Arden

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Crass suggests a gross unfeeling quality that makes the mind incapable of delicate mental processes (as analysis, discrimination, and evaluation) or impervious to refined or spiritual ideas

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crass ignorance

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those dedicated guardians of man's aspiration who somehow redeem their crass society by being simultaneously its exiles, queer ducks and catalysts— Viereck

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the new business buildings in the City of London represent British philistinism in its most crass and shortsighted form— Mumford

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he resented him as a crass and stupid person who had fallen through luck into flowing prosperity— Malamud

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Dumb (see also DUMB 1) is a term of contempt that may be used in place of any of the preceding terms especially when obtuseness and inarticulateness are also implied

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how dumb do you think people are? Or how obtuse are you, actually?— Wouk

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too dumb to do things in the right way— Reilly

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Analogous words: foolish, silly, *simple, fatuous, asinine: sluggish, comatose, *lethargic: inert, idle, supine, *inactive: phlegmatic, stolid, *impassive

Antonyms: intelligent