Choose the Right Synonym for spite

Noun

malice, malevolence, ill will, spite, malignity, spleen, grudge mean the desire to see another experience pain, injury, or distress. malice implies a deep-seated often unexplainable desire to see another suffer. felt no malice toward their former enemies malevolence suggests a bitter persistent hatred that is likely to be expressed in malicious conduct. a look of dark malevolence ill will implies a feeling of antipathy of limited duration. ill will provoked by a careless remark spite implies petty feelings of envy and resentment that are often expressed in small harassments. petty insults inspired by spite malignity implies deep passion and relentlessness. a life consumed by motiveless malignity spleen suggests the wrathful release of latent spite or persistent malice. venting his spleen against politicians grudge implies a harbored feeling of resentment or ill will that seeks satisfaction. never one to harbor a grudge

Examples of spite in a Sentence

Noun He is jealous and full of spite. spread cruel lies out of pure spite Verb He only did it to spite me. sometimes, I swear, she keeps doing that just to spite me

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun And yet in spite of these evasions, or perhaps because of them, historians persist. — James Robins, The New Republic, "Can Historians Be Traumatized by History?," 16 Feb. 2021 In spite of the innocuous and, overall, vague nature of the announcement, not all of the responses to the news were totally positive. — Marie Claire, "A British Tabloid's Snarky Headline About Meghan Markle Is Drawing Backlash," 15 Feb. 2021 Still, in spite of all those bricks, some incredible defensive sequences by Rudy Gobert, Royce O’Neale — even Miye Oni — powered Utah into the lead. — Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, "Monstrous defensive stretch carries Utah Jazz to 112-94 win, their 7th straight victory," 14 Feb. 2021 An orange one sold for $1,020 at a Bertoia auction in spite of seven replacement figures with old paint. — Star Tribune, "Bus gave toy tourists a clear view of New York," 12 Feb. 2021 There is an aspect to Stardew Valley that brings to mind—almost in spite of itself, as the thing meant to motivate players is a kind of skewed capitalism—cooperative communities. — Isabelle Davis, Wired, "Games Don’t Judge You for Expressing Your True Self," 11 Feb. 2021 In spite of having few assets, MelodyVR purchased Napster for $70 million, $12 million of it being cash, with a vision of combining streaming audio with a new music format, virtual reality. — Glenn Peoples, Billboard, "Napster's Next Life: MelodyVR Raises $11.2M Ahead of Rebrand to a Familiar Name," 10 Feb. 2021 The tourists visit the city in spite of the torrid heat, the gloomy atmosphere. — Jhumpa Lahiri, The New Yorker, "Casting Shadows," 8 Feb. 2021 A year earlier, in 1986, a U.S.-Soviet summit in Iceland had collapsed in spite of his hopes that the superpowers could ban much of their nuclear arsenals. — Matthew Lee, ajc, "George Shultz wasn't 'afraid to struggle against the odds'," 7 Feb. 2021 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb Whether Trump is threatening to hold up the relief bill simply to spite Republicans is unclear. — Jonathan Lemire, Anchorage Daily News, "With a video filmed in secret, Trump keeps sowing chaos," 23 Dec. 2020 Whether Trump is threatening to hold up the relief bill simply to spite Republicans is unclear. — Arkansas Online, "In final weeks, Trump keeps sowing chaos, hamstringing GOP," 23 Dec. 2020 Someone might have wanted to spite Pfizer for refusing the money that Trump was so generously bestowing. — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, "The Overlooked Hallmark of the Trump Administration—and Other Autocracies," 15 Dec. 2020 Many have even joked that Trump is banning TikTok just to spite Sarah Cooper, an actor who does comedic imitations of him that have gone viral these past few months. — Christian Allaire, Vogue, "TikTok’s Fashion Stars Are Not Worried About Donald Trump's Ban Threat," 3 Aug. 2020 This is what Alabamafication looks like — the politics of stubbornness and spite, of feelings over facts, sentiment over science, and false beliefs over hard data. — Kyle Whitmire, al, "Alabamafication unmasked," 1 July 2020 There’s even some evidence that efforts to limit voting have a backfire effect, encouraging voters to turn out to spite the designs to suppress their ballots, as may have happened this April in Wisconsin. — Lee Drutman, The New Republic, "How Democracy Dies at the Ballot Box," 18 June 2020 Some people lock lips just to spite their fellow contestants. — Judy Berman, Time, "Too Hot to Handle," 16 Apr. 2020 By the end of the episode, Catherine is leaving the Fox-Weber home and plotting to buy Richard’s new medical home, PacNorth, just to spite him. — Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, "Grey’s Anatomy," 7 Feb. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'spite.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.