The word for "idiot"

[Kong Junrui]

I've learned from some native Chinese speakers at my school that to say idiot you'd pronounce it baizi, so I always used it that way. However, I recently looked in a dictionary I bought and found that "idiot" is 呆子, daizi, with a d instead of a b. I told one of my friends this and he says that that's incorrect (though he's also learning it, not a native speaker), because his native Chinese speaking friend always said it that way.

Input?

[lpascoe]

白痴 bai2 chi1

Or that's what I'd say anyway.

[liuzhou]

You seem to be confusing two different words, 呆子 dai1 zi5 and 白痴 bai2 chi1, both of which mean 'idiot'.

In my experience 白痴 is the more common.

[yorkie_bear]

or 笨蛋? (ben4 dan4)

[carlo]

痴呆子 is also common here in Beijing.

[shiaosan]

傻瓜, 傻子,

[eddiewouldgo]

傻B

Cantonese：

傻佬,傻仔

[TaijiMantis]

猪头

十三点（上海话）

[nanyangguy]

愚人 yu2 ren2 - idiot, fool

愚人节 yu2 ren2 jie2 - April Fool

That's the only word I could think after looking at all the words posted.

[laohu489]

don't forget 弱智 I think it is the meanest of lot so far.

[semantic nuance]

You can use 驢 to mean someone is dumb. Ex:

1. 你很驢耶! You're dumb!

2. 你是個驢蛋! You're a dumb bell.

Or, you can use 蠢貨.

Another is similar to 弱智, it is 智障 meaning mental retarded. Ex:

你智障啊! Are you an idiot or what!

Hope it helps!

[elina]

Sometimes we say 你脑子进水了 to express this meaning.

[ala]

十三点（上海话）

Not really.

Shanghainese words for "idiot":

戆大 gandou (idiot)

戆卵 ganloe (dumb prick), for guys only.

白痴 batshi (idiot)

巴子 paatsi (fool)

呆子 teitsi (fool, retard)

猪头三 tsudeusae (fool)

The character 傻 is not part of the Shanghainese vocabulary.

十三点 zesaetee does not mean stupid, it means "hysterical" or "psycho" and is used for girls or sissy guys.

[kudra]

When you heard baizi, can you tell us the tones?

白痴 bai2 chi1

if said with an accent that doesn't do retroflex ( like some Taiwan speakers)

would come out

bai2 ci1

which is pretty close to your reported

baizi