Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective boorish differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of boorish are churlish, clownish, and loutish. While all these words mean "uncouth in manners or appearance," boorish implies rudeness of manner due to insensitiveness to others' feelings and unwillingness to be agreeable.

a drunk's boorish behavior

When might churlish be a better fit than boorish?

While the synonyms churlish and boorish are close in meaning, churlish suggests surliness, unresponsiveness, and ungraciousness.

churlish remarks

When is it sensible to use clownish instead of boorish?

In some situations, the words clownish and boorish are roughly equivalent. However, clownish suggests ill-bred awkwardness, ignorance or stupidity, ungainliness, and often a propensity for absurd antics.

an adolescent's clownish conduct

When could loutish be used to replace boorish?

The words loutish and boorish are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, loutish implies bodily awkwardness together with stupidity.

a loutish oaf

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of boorish Intention and accidents, theft and boorish behavior: it all gets folded into the myth-serving lore. Hua Hsu, New Yorker, 19 May 2025 Final Destination 5 suffers from a pretty dull ensemble of future corpses (the most boorish include David Koechner and Rugrat from The Wolf of Wall Street), going through the same cycle of disbelief and dread the death-list targets always experience in these movies. A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 19 May 2025 MacFarlane will continue to provide the voice of Ted — a teddy bear brought to life by a boy’s wish, now grown up and bearing the hallmarks of a boorish Seth MacFarlane character. Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 9 May 2025 Harbour's loud, boorish Russian bear is funny at first, but alas, gets tiresome in a short amount of time. Jordan Hoffman, EW.com, 29 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for boorish
Recent Examples of Synonyms for boorish
Adjective
  • This was like loutish English tourists turning up unannounced and urinating in the holy water.
    Tim Spiers, New York Times, 22 May 2025
  • And Gandolfini, who died of a heart attack in 2013 at age 51, was the show’s tempestuous soul, playing a loutish killer with a quick temper and sad eyes.
    Chris Vognar, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Societal neglect will inevitably breed a coarseness in manner and language, exhibited by the uncouth nature of the Chiefs’ players as well as the public watching them.
    Vikram Murthi, IndieWire, 19 Aug. 2025
  • If Netanyahu loses the next elections, his downfall would bring a wave of relief among many Israelis at home and abroad for removing the uncouth populists and religious fundamentalists who openly broadcast their intentions to destroy and starve the population of Gaza and annex the territory.
    DAHLIA SCHEINDLIN, Foreign Affairs, 13 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • Private ownership is eliminated with the goal of all goods being equally shared in a classless society.
    Marley Malenfant, Austin American Statesman, 2 July 2025
  • The rowdy responses of the classless crowd were intolerable.
    Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 10 June 2025
Adjective
  • Read more: How the Low-Stakes Murder Mystery Took Over Pop Culture Advertisement Still, The Thursday Murder Club is so good-natured, and so gorgeous to look at, that to carp about it just seems churlish.
    Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 22 Aug. 2025
  • The pure of heart among you may recoil at the notion that anyone would sow brutish chaos, hurt vulnerable people and throw any semblance of democracy under the bus for a churlish, vicious distraction.
    Pat Beall, Sun Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • In part, because there was something fascinating about the clownish way their once cutting-edge images no longer fit.
    IndieWire Staff, IndieWire, 16 Aug. 2025
  • Joining Proctor in court was Meatball Morrissey’s clownish prosecutor, Adam Lally.
    Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 6 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • The recent rash of CEOs Gone Wild is arguably even stupider than commonplace fraud, and a troubling sign that there continues to be a slippery slope of accountability for C-Suite leadership.
    Ian Chaffee, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2025
  • The accounts team logs in right on time, and the stupid dance of platitudes that precedes every meeting at every company around the world begins.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Gilliam is not contesting states' rights to ban profane, sexualized or vulgar plates.
    Angele Latham, The Tennessean, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Two Beal City high schoolers received thousands of vulgar text messages from an unknown sender for months.
    Natalie Davies, Freep.com, 3 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Boorish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/boorish. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.

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