HOT-TEMPERED Synonyms: 102 Similar and Opposite Words

hot-tempered

adjective

Definition of hot-tempered

as in antagonistic

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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 hot-tempered In addition, teens who are dealing with intense emotions that are hard to cope with are often hot-tempered and easily irritated. — Staff Author, Parents, 9 Mar. 2026 What is the strategy for living with someone who is exceedingly hot-tempered? — R. Eric Thomas, Mercury News, 25 Oct. 2025 The movie co-stars Albert Finney as an acclaimed and hot-tempered writer named George and Keaton as Faith, the wife and mother of his children, who gave up her own dreams to support him, only to get thrown over for a younger woman (Karen Allen). — Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 12 Oct. 2025 Robbie is a complicated man, at once incredibly compassionate and deeply self-centered, philosophical and brooding but also impulsive and hot-tempered. — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 17 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for hot-tempered

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hot-tempered

Adjective

These sensual glimmers are no match for the antagonistic sociality of straight male relationships, which, in this novel, quickly convert sympathy or desire into rivalry and aggression.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2026
This evolutionary theory of aging is known as antagonistic pleiotropy.

— Venki Ramakrishnan, Scientific American, 15 Sep. 2026

Definition of antagonistic

Adjective

The lawsuit is one of at least 13 cases filed in 2026 by current and former Independence Police Department officers alleging hostile work environments and dysfunction within the department.

— Ben Wheeler, Kansas City Star, 24 Sep. 2026
Chambliss aims to join them while avoiding a long list of talented signal callers who fell apart in one of the sport’s most-hostile environments.

— Edgar Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 23 Sep. 2026

Definition of hostile

Adjective

Quick-witted, feisty, and loving, Neo is the owner of Neo’s Soul Kitchen.

— Denise Petski, Deadline, 25 Sep. 2026
Bass is playing Cyrus’s pop and rock interests against each other, sometimes enticingly but sometimes divisively, balancing production from longtime Harry Styles affiliate Kid Harpoon and feisty Brooklyn rock quartet Model/Actriz.

— Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 23 Sep. 2026

Definition of feisty

Adjective

The measure would prohibit the government from joining sanctions against any belligerent country except sanctions approved by the United Nations.

— ABC News, ABC News, 27 Sep. 2026
Relatives said Billini had even asked the building’s management to move her to another apartment to get her away from her belligerent neighbor.

— Leonard Greene, New York Daily News, 23 Sep. 2026

Definition of belligerent

Adjective

In 2005, the Cage was opened by Ross (the Boss) Friedman, a founding member of the pugnacious and seminal punk band the Dictators, stalwarts of the early CBGB scene.

— Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2026
Though less overtly pugnacious than the other main far-right cabinet member, Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, with whom he is often compared, Smotrich has used his time in office to ramp up settlement building.

— Reuters, NBC news, 7 Aug. 2026

Definition of pugnacious

Adjective

The remarks stand in stark contrast to Trump’s earlier posture toward Greenland, which had included months of combative rhetoric, tariff threats and a refusal to rule out military force to acquire the island.

— Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN Money, 22 Sep. 2026
Current and former employees said Allen is largely an absentee leader who is combative and who put his workers in harm’s way by not acting sooner to address building concerns prior to a roof collapse last year.

— Matthew Adams, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 17 Sep. 2026

Definition of combative

Adjective

Volatile, quarrelsome, dogmatic, and sure of his own brilliance, Reinhold outraged patrons, amassed huge debts, and turned his eldest son into an exhausted workhorse.

— Jenny Uglow, The New York Review of Books, 4 July 2026
The toys, like the perpetually quarrelsome Woody and Buzz or Jessie the cowgirl, who now takes center stage, have seen their boy and girl owners grow up and leave them behind.

— Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 June 2026

Definition of quarrelsome

Adjective

The environment around Venus at the top of the month is pointed, confrontational, and probably a bit rage-inducing.

— Steph Koyfman, Condé Nast Traveler, 28 Sep. 2026
The incident came as agitators against immigration adopt a confrontational new tactic of trying to stop the boats landing on England’s shores, clashing with police and rescue workers in the process.

— Jill Lawless, Los Angeles Times, 24 Sep. 2026

Definition of confrontational

Browse Nearby Words

hotted (up)

hot-tempered

hot ticket

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“Hot-tempered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hot-tempered. Accessed 1 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of hot-tempered

adjective

Example Sentences

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