Ridicule means mocking or making fun of someone in a mean-spirited way that's meant to make them feel foolish or embarrassed. When people ridicule others, they're trying to make someone look stupid or worthy of scorn, using laughter or mockery as a weapon to humiliate.

You might see ridicule when a group of students laughs harshly at someone's mistake, or when someone imitates another person's speech or appearance cruelly. Ridicule goes beyond simple teasing because it has a sharp, humiliating edge. A scientist proposing a new theory might face ridicule from colleagues who dismiss the idea as absurd. An inventor might endure ridicule before proving their creation actually works.

The word can be used as a verb or a noun. Someone might ridicule your ideas (the action), or your ideas might become the target of ridicule (the thing itself). Being subjected to ridicule feels worse than ordinary criticism because it's designed to shame rather than help.

History shows that people ridiculed ideas that later proved correct. Scientists who proposed that germs caused disease faced ridicule before microscopes helped prove them right. The Wright brothers endured ridicule from people who insisted human flight was impossible.