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# dunce

«dunce» in Mova's school dictionary: **slow to learn or thought to be stupid, especially a pupil** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a dunce, dunces)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (old-fashioned, unkind) A person who is slow to learn or thought to be stupid, especially a pupil. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dunce/#m1)

2) In «dunce's cap» (dunce cap): a tall paper cone hat that pupils in old schools were made to wear as a punishment. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dunce/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In old school stories a pupil who got answers wrong was made to sit in the corner in a dunce's cap. Today this is seen as cruel; everyone learns at a different speed, and calling someone a dunce is unkind. Fun fact: the word comes from John Duns Scotus, a clever medieval thinker whose followers were later mocked as «Dunsmen».

### examples

- In the old school, the dunce had to sit in the corner. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dunce/#x1)
- The teacher made him wear a dunce's cap. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dunce/#x2)
- Calling someone a dunce is unkind. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dunce/#x3)
- Toad acted like a dunce, but he thought he was clever. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dunce/#x4)
- «I'm such a dunce at maths!» she laughed – but she was wrong. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dunce/#x5)
- Today no teacher uses a dunce's cap. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dunce/#x6)
- Once upon a time there lived an old couple who had three sons; the two elder were clever, but the third was a regular dunce. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dunce/#x7)

### note

Countable. An insult; avoid using it about people. Rhymes with «once».

### In the corpora

- [Do you take me for a dunce?» (dunce = a stupid pupil).](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/22-alice-who-stole-the-tarts-2/20/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «dunce» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dunce/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.