Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A dunce.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A dunce; a numskull.
Wiktionary
- n. A stupid person; a dunce
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A dunce; a numskull; a blockhead.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence
Etymologies
- Perhaps Dutch donder, thunder (from Middle Dutch doner; see (s)tenə- in Indo-European roots) + head. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Those state functionaries need to get their heads checked and stop protecting the very people that are p*issing on them. 'dunderhead' - lol!”
“And while that might sound like a naive and silly comment like, where have you been dunderhead, that is how it has been for years, if not forever!”
The Huffington Post: Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater: Lame Duck and Tower of Babel
“To call him a "dunderhead" would be an insult to true "dunderheads" like Sarah Palin.”
“Maduna apparently called Tshishonga a "dunderhead" and a "relic of the bantustans".”
“Although truly about a mentally fractured woman turned vigilante psychopath after a beating by thugs leaves her laid up in a hospital for three weeks, only to wake up to the news that her fiance was killed in the attack all plot points readily pronounced in the previews, so don't cry spoiler, the film would like to pass itself off as a story about female empowerment—the kind of dunderhead regressiveness mistaken for social progress in a logic-free think tank.”
“There was a postscript, too: I am such a dunderhead with languages that you will have to be the one who translates.”
“I've had enough experiences in my life that are beyond the pale that I'd be a dunderhead not to believe in miracles.”
“Finally some democrats are realizing what a complete dunderhead Obama is.”
Talks break down, intra-party tension heats up for House Democrats
“Ron Schiller's performance on videotape—which included lecturing two young men pretending to be Muslims on how to select wine—is a "South Park"-worthy caricature of the American liberal as an effete, Volvo-driving, wine-sipping, NPR-listening dunderhead.”
“A unique event"; I guess this dunderhead doesn't realize the same tactic was used in an attack on the Sauds.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dunderhead’.
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Gapeseeds and Muckworms - Compound De...
A list of compound derogatory names such as gapeseed, muckworm and lickspittle. Your one-word contributions to this list are welcome.
See sionnach's list derogatory terms I should use ...gapeseed, muckworm, lickspittle, makeweight, bootlicker, backscratcher, apple-polisher, backslapper, brownnoser, rakeshame, yesman, freeloader and 293 more...
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A List Of The Cutest Words Ever Created!
HEE OK LETS DO IT! I'm v.v. excited! (with thanks to whichbe, Lampbane, bilby, effigy, frogapplause, and fredrx!)
piggy, toesy woesies, snurfle, wiggly, chomp, lewispoo, dobby, dunderhead, cupcake, mumbo jumbo, wigglebop, scuttle and 99 more...
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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WF - nominal compounds (figurative)
An extensive list I have been working on for quite some time. Feel free to add more of the kind if you miss any.
brainstorming, upside, downside, goldplating, bikeshedding, mudslinging, downgrading, headhunter, streamlining, mainstreaming, gerrymandering, frontloading and 503 more...
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unkind words
unkind words or those refering them.
twit, gibe, blockhead, bonehead, cretin, dullard, imbecile, simpleton, clod, dunce, simp, ignoramus and 39 more...
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Insult Words
A rich collection of all the ways you can insult someone's intelligence.
idiot, cretin, moron, dimwit, nincompoop, meathead, addlepate, dingbat, dumbbell, dunce, fool, halfwit and 31 more...
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Things from my memory
nigger baby, mexican jumping bean, puddle jumper, mood ring, pet rock, cat scratch fever, taxman, hippie, vaseline, argyrol, mercurchrome, methiolade and 655 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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A spoonful of sugar
Words I should learn/I want to learn/I just learned, with a quotation to help the medicine go down.
approbation, assuage, chicanery, abscond, effrontery, enervation, equivocate, ennui, aftertaste, filibuster, perfunctory, abide and 391 more...
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geekwad's Words
mysterium, elif, reckon, shadowy, ostensibly, unique, foodie, surreptitiously, asynchronous, insane, berserk, space pirate and 235 more...
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The Golem's Eye
Words and phrases from Jonathan Stroud's book, The Golem's Eye.
ordure, widdershins, cop, stipple, ostler, struts, minaret, chemise, remonstrate, concussion, wicket, vamoose and 249 more...
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Kaichi's Wordie Darlings, or I'm a Lo...
persnickety, discombobulated, braggadoccio, anthropomorphous, antelucan, confluxible, anomalous, poseur, gallivant, poppycock, falderal, gewgaw and 705 more...
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What Keeps Your Ears Apart?
A sort of stuffie of words/phrases that include "head"
head of cattle, out of one's head, head of the stairs, come to a head, head of steam, head of the page, win by a head, head taller, headway, fountainhead, heads or tails, hit the nail on t... and 143 more...
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Must use daily
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dunderhead.

chained_bear Hey! Someone in my office just said this!
*smiles* Jan 16, 2009