as in irritable
having or showing a habitually bad temper
an ill-natured and unpleasant old horse that sometimes bites
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Recent Examples of ill-natured
Annalise, the most ill-natured guest to embark on the Bravado since the legendary Carlos, complains about the absence of truffles (not in season) on her pasta.
—
Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 20 Jan. 2026
Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 20 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ill-natured
Adjective
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That’s because the Moon is at odds with Mars today and everyone is irritable.—
Georgia Nicols,
Denver Post,
7 May 2026
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What are the symptoms of irritable bowel disease?—
Lindy Segal,
PEOPLE,
24 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Perhaps some will find this gentleness frustrating, and interpret it as an apologia for a complacency inappropriate to our angry, angular, activist times.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
15 May 2026
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That includes Romane Fringeli, playing Enzo’s sister Carla, who is angry that Enzo plans to move their father Anthony (Bastien Bouillon), freshly released from prison, into their apartment.—
Carlos Aguilar,
IndieWire,
15 May 2026
Adjective
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This is because there is a meaningful difference between disagreeing and being disagreeable.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
7 Apr. 2026
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Another bill would put regulations around data centers, although lawmakers in the final days stripped out some of the language that tech companies found disagreeable.—
Garrett Shanley,
Miami Herald,
13 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Madge Gates Wallace was 98 years old, nearly deaf and famously cantankerous.—
Susan Page,
USA Today,
27 Apr. 2026
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Silverman joins Sullivan's Crossing as Quincy Carlson, a cantankerous camper.—
Christopher Rudolph,
PEOPLE,
20 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Sun shrinking and getting hotter; everything bilious, oxygenless, not great for living.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
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Minaj’s bilious flurry is possibly related to claims that she is owed between $100 to 200 million related to her stake in Tidal, the music streaming service launched and spearheaded by Jay-Z in 2015 and was sold to Jack Dorsey’s company Square for $297 million in 2021.—
Andrew Flanagan,
Variety,
15 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Meanwhile, the commentator and controversialist Piers Morgan, an obsessively close observer and relentless critic of Meghan, inevitably waded in with his usual splenetic views.—
Sarah Lyall,
New York Times,
17 Sep. 2022
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And while there is enough splenetic wit and manic detail to generate obsessive fandom (entire sections of Web sites are dedicated to deciphering just what Kenny is mumbling), subjects like alien abduction, genetic engineering, and Kathie Lee are hardly original targets for satire.—
Chris Norris,
SPIN,
13 Aug. 2022
Adjective
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Better is Danny Elfman’s spartan and fraught score, particularly the dyspeptic drums.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Jan. 2026
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But Kael sensed in her less dyspeptic moments that there was something special about Redford.—
Stephen Galloway,
HollywoodReporter,
18 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The rabbi is ornery, arrogant, sometimes cruel.—
Daniel Felsenthal,
Vulture,
26 Mar. 2026
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For ornery toddlers, who want to do everything themselves, Rao suggests giving them their own toothbrush to use while parents brush their teeth with a second one right alongside them.—
Sarah Lindenfeld Hall,
Popular Science,
11 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Ill-natured.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ill-natured. Accessed 16 May. 2026.
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