arrant

[ ar-uhnt ]

adjective

1. downright; thorough; unmitigated; notorious:

   an arrant fool.

   Synonyms: flagrant, confirmed, utter, thoroughgoing

2. wandering; errant.

arrant

/ ˈærənt /

adjective

1. utter; out-and-out

   an arrant fool

Derived Forms

• ˈarrantly, adverb

Other Words From

• arrant·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of arrant¹

1350–1400; Middle English, variant of errant

Word History and Origins

Origin of arrant¹

C14: a variant of errant (wandering, vagabond); sense developed from its frequent use in phrases like arrant thief (hence: notorious)

Example Sentences

Former Scottish Tory leader Baroness Ruth Davidson said the idea that the prime minister was going to stay on until the party conference was "arrant nonsense"

From BBC

"There's no way he can stay on until October. It's arrant nonsense to think he can. Someone needs to grip this."

From Reuters

One reason for this, he posits: “The economy is a complicated system that is inherently difficult to understand, so propositions like these” — the arrant nonsense in question — “are all that saves us from intellectual nihilism.”

From New York Times

Was it not a dangerous word, too closely connected to Hobbes and to dubious stories about sympathetic magic told by Digby—someone whom John Evelyn, another early member, could dismiss as an arrant mountebank?

From Literature

The country that invented Donald Duck is the last to discover his cynicism—and what arrant cynicism it is.

From The New Yorker