folly

Questions about folly

What is another word for folly?

It depends which folly you mean. In the sense “the trait of acting stupidly or rashly”, the synonyms are foolishness, unwiseness. Across all 4 senses there are 11 distinct synonyms, and they are not interchangeable with each other — this page lists them under the sense each one belongs to.

What is the opposite of folly?

The recorded antonym is wisdom. Opposites are sense-specific too: this page shows which meaning each one is the opposite of, because a word rarely has a single opposite that holds for all of its senses.

Why are the synonyms for folly split into groups?

Because folly carries 4 recorded senses and each has its own set of substitutes. A single flat list would put words from unrelated meanings side by side with nothing to tell them apart, which is exactly how a writer picks the wrong one. The grouping comes from WordNet's synsets, not from an editorial judgement of ours.

Where do the synonyms for folly come from?

From Princeton University's WordNet, a lexical database maintained by lexicographers since 1985. A synonym here means a word form that shares a synset with this word — a set of forms interchangeable in one recorded context. Nothing on this page is generated by a language model.

Other views of folly

• Full entry for follyAll 4 senses, with examples, usage labels, syllables and pronunciation.
• Rhymes for follyWords matching from the last stressed vowel onward, grouped by syllable count.
• Thesaurus homeHow WordNet synsets work, and the collections built for synonym work.