Jester vs. Fool — What's the Difference?

A jester, court jester, or fool, was historically an entertainer during the medieval and Renaissance eras who was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch employed to entertain guests. Jesters were also itinerant performers who entertained common folk at fairs and town markets.

A person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person

A professional joker or ‘fool’ at a medieval court, typically wearing a cap with bells on it and carrying a mock sceptre.

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

One given to jesting.

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

A fool or buffoon at medieval courts.

Trick or deceive (someone); dupe

One who jests, jokes or teases.

Act in a joking, frivolous, or teasing way

A person in colourful garb and fool's cap who amused a medieval and early modern royal or noble court.

Foolish; silly

Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Southeast Asian genus Symbrenthia.

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

A buffoon; a merry-andrew; a court fool.

One who acts unwisely on a given occasion

A person addicted to jesting, or to indulgence in light and amusing talk.

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

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

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

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

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

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;