Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Extremely ignorant, uneducated, lacking basic knowledge: Describes a state of profound ignorance, often implying a lack of formal education or fundamental understanding across a broad range of subjects.
   • Crass, benighted: Suggests a coarseness or darkness of intellect due to a severe lack of knowledge or enlightenment.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Anh ta thật sự dốt nát về lịch sử nước nhà. (He is truly ignorant about his country's history.)
  • Những tư tưởng dốt nát đó đã kìm hãm sự phát triển của làng xã. (Those benighted ideas hindered the village's development.)
  • Cần phải xóa bỏ nạn dốt nát. (It is necessary to eradicate illiteracy and ignorance.)

Advanced Usage

• Often used in a critical or condemnatory tone to describe not just a lack of knowledge, but a state of being unenlightened, backward, or resistant to learning.
• Can be used to describe a person, a group of people, or abstract concepts like ideas, customs, or practices that are considered backward due to ignorance.
  • Mê tín dị đoan là một biểu hiện của dốt nát. (Superstition is a manifestation of ignorance.)

Variants and Related Words

• Dốt (adj): Ignorant, stupid (less severe and broader than ; can refer to being bad at a specific subject).
  • Nó dốt toán. (He is bad at math.)
• Ngu dốt (adj): Stupid, ignorant (emphasizes foolishness combined with ignorance).
• Thất học (adj): Uneducated, illiterate (focuses on the lack of schooling).

Synonyms

• Ngu muội (adj): Ignorant and foolish, often in a stubborn way.
• Tối tăm (adj): Literally "dark"; benighted, unenlightened (often used for ideas or an era).
• Lạc hậu (adj): Backward, outdated (can result from ).

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Dốt nát hay nói chữ: An ignorant person who likes to use fancy words (to show off); to be pretentious despite being ignorant.
  • Đừng có dốt nát hay nói chữ trước mặt mọi người. (Don't be an ignoramus who uses fancy words in front of everyone.)
• Dốt đặc cán mai: Extremely ignorant, "thick as a brick" (a very strong, colloquial expression).
  • Hắn dốt đặc cán mai, giải thích mấy lần cũng không hiểu. (He's as thick as a brick; explaining several times still doesn't help him understand.)

1. Very dull-writted (nói khái quát), crass
   • Học hành dốt nát
     To be very dull-witted (crass) at learning
   • Thoát khỏi cảnh nghèo đói và dốt nát
     to be freed from squalid poverty and crass ignorance