as in blunder
a foolish act or idea
writing a sequel to a Jane Austen novel must be regarded as a literary bêtise of the highest order
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bêtise
Noun
-
What happened to Josh Friedman isn’t just an HR blunder.—
Chloe Rogers,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 July 2025 -
Letting Tommy Kahnle, a reliable arm, walk has turned out to be a massive blunder.—
Zach Pressnell,
MSNBC Newsweek,
9 July 2025
Noun
-
Way was nothing short of a force of nature in the role, bringing a mix of mania, terror and insanity to a character that felt straight out of the comic books he’s written.—
Jim Harrington,
Mercury News,
21 July 2025
-
Kraepelin hoped that schizophrenia would eventually reveal itself to be a disease like neurosyphilis, which was then responsible for a large portion of the cases of insanity in psychiatry wards.—
Rachel Aviv,
New Yorker,
21 July 2025
Noun
-
Amid the absurdity, the women slowly chip away at each other’s defences – finding unexpected friendship, meaning, and a strange kind of freedom.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
8 July 2025
-
The set piece is exhilarating, not exhausting, and the heightened absurdity of it all is part of the fun.—
Jim Hemphill,
IndieWire,
3 July 2025
Noun
-
Critically dismissed at the time of its release, Spielberg’s grand folly is a lavish spectacle that has attracted a major cult following.—
Samantha Bergeson,
IndieWire,
18 July 2025
-
Such is the folly of an uninformed electorate, vulnerable and exploitable to the maxims of tyranny.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
17 July 2025
Noun
-
All this stupidity is only part of what makes SB 540 perhaps the year’s dumbest bill.—
Thomas Elias,
Mercury News,
18 July 2025
-
To My Canadian brothers and sisters: Please accept the sincerest apologies of many Americans for the lies, degradation and stupidity you have been subjected to by the U.S. president and his supporters and enablers.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
5 July 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Bêtise.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/b%C3%AAtise. Accessed 30 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share