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1
: the head of a pin
2
: something very small or insignificant
3
: a very dull or stupid person : fool
Synonyms
- airhead
- birdbrain
- blockhead
- bonehead
- bubblehead
- chowderhead
- chucklehead
- clodpoll
- clodpole
- clot [British]
- cluck
- clunk
- cretin
- cuddy [British dialect]
- cuddie
- deadhead
- dim bulb [slang]
- dimwit
- dip
- dodo
- dolt
- donkey
- doofus [slang]
- dope
- dork [slang]
- dullard
- dum-dum
- dumbbell
- dumbhead
- dummkopf
- dummy
- dunce
- dunderhead
- fathead
- gander
- golem
- goof
- goon
- half-wit
- hammerhead
- hardhead
- idiot
- ignoramus
- imbecile
- jackass
- know-nothing
- knucklehead
- lamebrain
- loggerhead [chiefly dialect]
- loon
- lump
- lunkhead
- meathead
- mome [archaic]
- moron
- mug [chiefly British]
- mutt
- natural
- nimrod [slang]
- nincompoop
- ninny
- ninnyhammer
- nit [chiefly British]
- nitwit
- noddy
- noodle
- numskull
- numbskull
- oaf
- prat [British]
- ratbag [chiefly Australian]
- saphead
- schlub [slang]
- shlub
- schnook [slang]
- simpleton
- stock
- stupe
- stupid
- thickhead
- turkey
- woodenhead
- yahoo
- yo-yo
Examples of pinhead in a Sentence
The insect is the size of a pinhead.
Her boss is a real pinhead.
Recent Examples on the Web
Below this sieve is a fine-mesh sieve that captures fossil bits down to 0.02 inch in size (smaller than a pinhead).
—Kristina A. Curry Rogers, Scientific American, 21 Sep. 2020
The beads were about the size of pinheads, and archaeologists had to remove each one from the soil block using tweezers.
—Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Oct. 2023
The X-ray object was located to somewhere inside the white circle, which is about the size a pinhead 100m away would appear.
—Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 7 Sep. 2023
Some might deliberately avoid seeing the political dread of E3, using the pinhead excuse that director Antoine Fuqua is a not consciously political filmmaker.
—Armond White, National Review, 1 Sep. 2023
Ascher previously directed the doc Room 237, a pinhead exegesis of Kubrick’s The Shining, which typifies how few critics or film professionals appreciate what surrealism is or its wit.
—Armond White, National Review, 7 June 2023
Aphids — which are about the size of a pinhead — invaded pecan trees.
—Sarah Bahari, Dallas News, 18 Oct. 2022
Nits are the size of a pinhead, and appear whitish or yellow.
—Kaitlyn Pirie, Good Housekeeping, 27 Aug. 2020
Sharpe himself had long lamented the depiction of pinball in the mainstream media — not just the freeze-frame inaccuracies only a true pinhead would notice, but the undeserved snark dismissing the game either as a vice for Fonzie-like greasers or as an esoteric outlet for Tommy-like obsessives.
—Adam Ruben, Washington Post, 26 Mar. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pinhead.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1593, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Dictionary Entries Near pinhead
Cite this Entry
“Pinhead.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pinhead. Accessed 10 Jun. 2024.
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