folly

Other forms of folly

plural

follies·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about folly

What does folly mean?

folly means "the trait of acting stupidly or rashly". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in folly?

folly has 2 syllables: fol-ly. The stress falls on "fol". In IPA it is /ˈfɑli/.

What is another word for folly?

Close synonyms include foolishness, unwiseness, stupidity, betise, foolishness. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of folly?

The recorded antonyms are wisdom.

Is folly a common word?

folly is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.