Fool vs. Trickster — What's the Difference?

A person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person

In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human, or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior.

A jester or clown, especially one retained in a royal or noble household.

One that swindles or plays tricks.

A cold dessert made of pureed fruit mixed or served with cream or custard

Often Trickster A mischievous or roguish figure in myth or folklore, often an animal, who typically makes up for physical weakness with cunning and subversive humor.

Trick or deceive (someone); dupe

Any of numerous figures featuring in various mythologies and folk traditions, who use guile and secret knowledge to challenge authority and play tricks and pranks on others; any similar figure in literature.

Act in a joking, frivolous, or teasing way

One who plays tricks or pranks on others.

Foolish; silly

One who performs tricks (parts of a magician' act or entertaining difficult physical actions).

One who is deficient in judgment, sense, or understanding.

An impish or playful person.

One who acts unwisely on a given occasion

A fraud person who performs a trick for the purpose of unlawful gain.

One who has been tricked or made to appear ridiculous; a dupe

One who tricks; a deceiver; a tricker; a cheat.

(Informal) A person with a talent or enthusiasm for a certain activity

Someone who plays practical jokes on others

A member of a royal or noble household who provided entertainment, as with jokes or antics; a jester.

Someone who leads you to believe something that is not true

One who subverts convention or orthodoxy or varies from social conformity in order to reveal spiritual or moral truth

A mischevous supernatural being found in the folklore of many primitive people; sometimes distinguished by prodigious biological drives and exaggerated bodily parts

A dessert made of stewed or puréed fruit mixed with cream or custard and served cold.

(Archaic) A mentally deficient person; an idiot.

To deceive or trick; dupe

To confound or prove wrong; surprise, especially pleasantly

To speak or act facetiously or in jest; joke

To behave comically; clown.

To feign; pretend

To engage in idle or frivolous activity.

To toy, tinker, or mess

Foolish; stupid

(pejorative) A person with poor judgment or little intelligence.

(historical) A jester; a person whose role was to entertain a sovereign and the court (or lower personages).

(informal) Someone who derives pleasure from something specified.

Buddy, dude, man.

(cooking) A type of dessert made of puréed fruit and custard or cream.

A particular card in a tarot deck, representing a jester.

To trick; to deceive.

To act in an idiotic manner; to act foolishly.

(archaic) To make a fool of; to make act the fool.

(informal) Foolish.

A compound of gooseberries scalded and crushed, with cream; - commonly called gooseberry fool.

One destitute of reason, or of the common powers of understanding; an idiot; a natural.

A person deficient in intellect; one who acts absurdly, or pursues a course contrary to the dictates of wisdom; one without judgment; a simpleton; a dolt.

One who acts contrary to moral and religious wisdom; a wicked person.

One who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments.

To play the fool; to trifle; to toy; to spend time in idle sport or mirth.

To infatuate; to make foolish.

To use as a fool; to deceive in a shameful or mortifying manner; to impose upon; to cheat by inspiring foolish confidence; as, to fool one out of his money.

A person who lacks good judgment

A person who is gullible and easy to take advantage of

A professional clown employed to entertain a king or nobleman in the middle ages

Make a fool or dupe of

Spend frivolously and unwisely;

Fool or hoax;

Indulge in horseplay;