as in irritable
having or showing a habitually bad temper
an ill-natured and unpleasant old horse that sometimes bites
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ill-natured
Adjective
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Instead, Helen is allowed to be irritable and anti-social, chain-smoking and snappish, without the filmmaker casting judgment.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
2 Sep. 2025 -
If you are rushed or irritable, say so.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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One unbearable sequence has Chiang coming back angry in the middle of the day and suddenly raping Chuan in their bedroom.—
Jordan Mintzer,
HollywoodReporter,
4 Sep. 2025
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In late July, centrist independent US Senator Angus King released a startlingly angry statement.—
Jack Sheehan
September 4,
Literary Hub,
4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Over the weekend, reports emerged that the higher tariffs followed a disagreeable Thursday phone call between Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter and Trump — which Swiss officials rejected, according to Reuters.—
Sophie Kiderlin,Jenni Reid,
CNBC,
4 Aug. 2025
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Trump and his supporters prefer a happy history, a pleasant history that arouses patriotism by overlooking disagreeable people and despicable events that sully the nation’s reputation and mar the magnificence of the American story.—
William C. Hine,
Twin Cities,
23 July 2025
Adjective
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Tudyk played Sonny, a robot who helps the cantankerous detective uncover the truth behind his creator's death.—
Taijuan Moorman,
USA Today,
12 Aug. 2025
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Advertisement Johnson anticipates more challenges from his cantankerous colleagues.—
Eric Cortellessa,
Time,
7 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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That continues when the matriarch finally passes away 20 years later, leaving equally bilious offspring Laras (Dinda Kanyadewi) in charge.—
Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
6 Aug. 2025
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Even though his bloodwork looked normal six months previously, sudden onset or acute renal failure can happen in an old dog for no apparent reason other than age and result in bilious vomiting.—
Dr. John De Jong,
Boston Herald,
8 June 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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That ornery cleric was Moqtada al-Sadr, the son of Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr, a grand ayatollah assassinated almost certainly by Saddam’s order in 1999.—
Graeme Wood,
The Atlantic,
2 Sep. 2025
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Their aggressive, ornery, and unpredictable nature has earned them the nickname Black Death.—
Kris Millgate,
Outdoor Life,
7 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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The boy’s father, an exasperated man at the mercy of an Amazon-like delivery job that docks him for every second he so much as thinks about his son, is the only person who even wants to go through the effort of looking for him.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
7 Sep. 2025
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An exasperated Sabalenka was quick to blow up in the press conference after the Centre Court defeat, claiming her opponent should have apologized for celebrating a winner too early.—
Tim Ellis,
Forbes.com,
5 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Ill-natured.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ill-natured. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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