(n.) The state of being foolish; want of good sense; levity, weakness, or derangement of mind.
(n.) A foolish act; an inconsiderate or thoughtless procedure; weak or light-minded conduct; foolery.
(n.) Scandalous crime; sin; specifically, as applied to a woman, wantonness.
(n.) The result of a foolish action or enterprise.
Example Sentences:
(1) It is a folly to think measures to fix eurozone governance will suffice, however needed those may be.
(2) A senior Conservative cabinet minister has issued a warning to leaders "of all political parties" that putting Britain's membership of the European Union at risk would be "complete folly" and that the "irresponsible" debate taking place is damaging the country's influence at the negotiating table.
(3) Whenever I hear about David Blunkett's tests for new immigrants, I think of my mother's initial impressions and don't know whether to laugh or cry: laugh because of the patent folly of his attempts to fix what is fluid and to codify what is contested in British identity; or cry at the racism that has inspired it, the nationalism that informs it, and the historical, political and cultural illiteracy that infects every part of it.
(4) Vice, folly and humbug – it is the point of satire really.
(5) Honor & Folly ( honorandfolly.com , one bedroom $165 a night, both bedrooms $215, plus a sofabed for children) is a home away from home with a fully stocked kitchen and a cosy living area decorated with vintage and locally crafted furniture.
(6) His friend Dingle Foot drafted an editorial that David then sharpened up, inserting phrases that summed up his outlook: 'We had not realised that our government was capable of such folly and crookedness...It is no longer possible to bomb countries because you fear that your trading interests will be harmed...this new feeling for the sanctity of human life is the best element in the modern world.'
(7) ‘Patriotism’ is a difficult concept to pin, and one man’s patriotism can easily be misjudged as folly or even treachery if we start judging based on a narrow understanding of the term.” Walid, a Muslim veteran of the navy, added that “even though we invaded Iraq based upon bogus information, that doesn’t diminish the sacrifice of Captain Khan and other American service members who lost their lives”.
(8) A few years before Lady Thatcher and Mr Letwin became obsessed with the poll tax, the American historian Barbara Tuchman wrote a book about the march of folly in human affairs from the Trojan to the Vietnamese war.
(9) To continue along this path of folly is not compatible with the maintenance of wealth, nor with the health of humans or the biosphere.
(10) At 568,969, the paper’s circulation had recently overtaken that of its old rival, the Sunday Times : it’s not true that it plummeted after Suez as a result of the outrage caused by Astor adding the line: “We had not realised that our government was capable of such folly and such crookedness” to Dingle Foot’s leader – but well-heeled middle-class readers who cancelled their subscriptions were replaced by relatively impoverished students and leftwing intellectuals.
(11) Some startlingly grand privately owned buildings have repeatedly appeared on the annual register of the most important listed buildings at risk – virtually all the HHA properties are listed, and many are also scheduled ancient monuments or set in grade I gardens – including garden buildings and follies at Castle Howard in Yorkshire and Frogmore mausoleum, which holds some of the Queen's ancestors, in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
(12) In London, the Times newspaper called Ford’s position denying aid to New York City an “act of monumental folly”.
(13) Giles Swayne London • "Intelligent" Boris Johnson commits the age-old folly of mistaking good fortune, selfishness, narcissism and aggression for intelligence, but unwittingly demonstrates the wrongness of his position.
(14) That police can legally do this, the QCCL argues, illustrates the folly and unfairness of laws intended to safeguard an event at which police, on their own projections, will outnumber protesters three to one.
(15) This sad state of affairs shows the folly of handing over taxpayers’ money to unaccountable groups to run schools.
(16) There are obvious implications for public services, and the clear link between poor public services and demand for healthcare is ignored at our folly.
(17) In a household, it would be economic folly to lay out grand plans without having the money to pay for them.
(18) The cliff-side Mussenden Temple is a folly that was modelled on the Temple of Vesta in Rome and built for the Earl Bishop of Derry (one of Lord Bristol’s eccentric forbears), in 1785.
(19) Follies plays exquisitely on the unreliability of memory and the ephemerality of theatre; it is a stark warning against the distorting dangers of nostalgia.
(20) In giving $850bn to the IMF the G20 are only making the poor suffer more, and forcing them to pay for the folly and greed of bankers and speculators.
Wisdom
Definition:
(a.) The quality of being wise; knowledge, and the capacity to make due use of it; knowledge of the best ends and the best means; discernment and judgment; discretion; sagacity; skill; dexterity.
(a.) The results of wise judgments; scientific or practical truth; acquired knowledge; erudition.
Example Sentences:
(1) He captivated me, but not just because of his intellect; it was for his wisdom, his psychological insights and his sense of humour that I will always remember our dinners together.
(2) He confronted the conventional wisdom that time is on our side and the status quo is working in our favour.
(3) If we accept that al-Qaida continues to pose a deadly threat to the UK, and if we know that it is capable of changing the locations of its bases and modifying its attack plans, we must accept that we have a duty to question the wisdom of prioritising, in terms of government spending on counter-terrorism, the deployment of our forces to Afghanistan.
(4) I salute you.” So clear-fall logging and burning of the tallest flowering forests on the planet, with provision for the dynamiting of trees over 80 metres tall, is an ultimate good in Abbott’s book of ecological wisdom.
(5) Still, the conventional wisdom among Republican political operatives in Washington right now is that the tightrope Paul is walking probably won’t lead to the White House.
(6) Indeed, mainstream economics is a pitifully thin distillation of historical wisdom on the topics that it addresses.
(7) Earlier this year the Observer named Cummings and De Zoete as being involved with the controversial Twitter feed @Toryeducation which insults opponents of Gove's reforms or anyone who chooses to question their wisdom.
(8) Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite " ("I told you I was ill") now reminds mourners of Spike's anarchic wit and wisdom.
(9) The results indicate that neither penicillin nor tinidazole have more effect on postoperative complications following operative extraction of wisdom teeth, than placebo tablets.
(10) This dilemma is at the heart of many people's anguished indecision over the wisdom of our action in Iraq.
(11) The Panglossian wisdom is that the web allows access to new sources of information and blogs, tweeters and online journals will replace the old newsrooms.
(12) Six hundred (600) out-patients, following surgical removal of an impacted lower wisdom tooth, were divided into three groups and randomly given either Fenbufen (500 mg capsules), ASA (750 mg capsules), or placebo.
(13) Far from enhancing security, the wisdom in Washington today is that these practises endangered it .
(14) Britain's most senior prosecutor has questioned whether heavy sentences given to last summer's rioters worked as an effective deterrence, challenging the received wisdom from senior judges and politicians.
(15) Those who viewed supervision as their right and would seek their managers out to ensure they were given time appeared to fare best – but it was acknowledged that this approach requires confidence, often gained through experience and practice wisdom.
(16) People are living longer, healthier lives, so it is right that our courts are able to benefit from the wisdom and experience that older people can offer.” Jane Ashcroft, chief executive of older people’s charity Anchor, said: “Older people already contribute a great deal to society and represent an integral part of any local community.
(17) Discussions are still active inside the cabinet on the wisdom of changing strike laws to introduce a turn-out threshold for ballots before a dispute can be deemed lawful.
(18) Yet the stream of refugees flooding across the border from Syria into Turkey shows the wisdom of introducing visa free travel between the two countries last year, said Knaus.
(19) Diplomatic tensions also intensified with Bahrain recalling its ambassador to Tehran, following the Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar's warning on Monday that Bahrain's rulers and the Gulf states who have sent troops to the kingdom needed to act with "wisdom and caution".
(20) He brooks no dissent or opposition and muzzles media outlets that dare question the wisdom of his rule.