bête

Examples

• All

• Her constant blunders made her colleagues refer to her as a bête in the office.

• Meet today's bête noire among the politically correct crowd—NBC's Luke Russert.

  Blog text (9)

• I mean, Matt Yglesias, a bête noire for the anti-neoliberal left, relentlessly pushes the idea for God's sake.

  Blog text (31)

• Many people considered him a bête for his impulsive decisions in business.

Synonyms

D

dope

vsbête

• Offensive

53 8.2

A person who acts in a stupid or foolish way

is similar but focuses more on overall lack of judgment as well as ignorance

S

stupid person

vsbête

• Offensive

30 1.1

A person who is not very smart and often makes bad choices

is a broader label that also covers bad judgment rather than only low intellect

T

tomfool

vsbête

• Offensive

1 9.9

A person who acts silly and does not think carefully

covers the same lack of judgment but is not limited to silly behaviour

S

simple

vsbête

• Offensive

1 9.9

A person who is not very intelligent

is used more broadly for someone judged as foolish or unwise

L

lackwit

vsbête

• Offensive

1 9.9

A person who is silly and not very clever

is the current, general way to describe poor judgment or low intelligence

S

saphead

vsbête

• Offensive

9.9

A person who acts like a fool and makes poor decisions

is the general term for low intelligence or poor decision making

P

pudden-head

vsbête

• Offensive

9.9

A person who is not very smart

is a more neutral label for poor judgment or low intelligence

B

benet

vsbête

• Offensive

9.9

A person who is simple and easily fooled

focuses on being judged unintelligent or unwise without implying naivety

Antonyms

G

genius

252 4.9

A person with very strong intelligence or creative skill

How Stupid

imbecile

• Slur

60 8.8

idiot

• Offensive

∞ 1.2

bête

• Offensive

9.9

fool

• Offensive

∞ 1.4

silly

976 1.0

Surface Forms

Etymology