thornier; thorniest
thorniness
noun
Examples of thorny in a Sentence
stay out of the thorny brambles unless you want a ton of scratches
Recent Examples on the Web
In the second validation study, a team led by microbiologists José Penadés and Tiago Costa at Imperial College London challenged the AI co-scientist with a thorny question about bacterial evolution.
—
Elie Dolgin, IEEE Spectrum, 25 Sep. 2025
Still, any gun training class will have to land on some key answers to thorny questions that will crop up from trainees.
—Nick Penzenstadler, USA Today, 25 Sep. 2025
Beyond genre, category placement decisions remain thorny, particularly when two romantic leads must decide whether to split the lead and supporting roles.
—Clayton Davis, Variety, 25 Sep. 2025
The fate of TikTok became increasingly wrapped up in sweeping trade talks between Washington and Beijing that include strategically thorny topics like tariffs, microchips, rare earth minerals and China's export of chemicals used to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
—John Ruwitch, NPR, 19 Sep. 2025
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Elie Dolgin, IEEE Spectrum, 25 Sep. 2025
Still, any gun training class will have to land on some key answers to thorny questions that will crop up from trainees.
—Nick Penzenstadler, USA Today, 25 Sep. 2025
Beyond genre, category placement decisions remain thorny, particularly when two romantic leads must decide whether to split the lead and supporting roles.
—Clayton Davis, Variety, 25 Sep. 2025
The fate of TikTok became increasingly wrapped up in sweeping trade talks between Washington and Beijing that include strategically thorny topics like tariffs, microchips, rare earth minerals and China's export of chemicals used to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
—John Ruwitch, NPR, 19 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for thorny
Cite this Entry
“Thorny.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thorny. Accessed 1 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
thorny
adjective
thornier; thorniest
1
: full of or covered with thorns
thorny rose bushes
2
: full of difficulties
a thorny problem
thorniness
noun
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