maddens

verb

present tense third-person singular of madden
1
as in bothers
to cause to go insane or as if insane the endless swarms of mosquitoes all but maddened the explorers

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in infuriates
to make angry her perpetual tardiness maddened her friends to no end

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for maddens
  1. bothers
  2. infuriates
  3. disturbs
  4. angers
  5. distracts
  6. enrages
  7. confuses
  8. annoys
Verb
  • Refresh the space that bothers you most before making bigger visibility decisions.
    — Tarot.com, New York Daily News, 20 July 2026
  • If that bothers you, then a significant projection for Bo Nix’s season will make your skin crawl.
    — Troy Renck, Denver Post, 6 July 2026
Definition of bothers
Verb
  • Georgia Supreme Court challenger Jen Jordan infuriates Republicans with a new fundraising email.
    — Adam Beam, AJC.com, 15 May 2026
  • To that end, Nate's extravagant wedding infuriates Naz, who thinks Nate has the ability to pay him back but is holding out on him.
    — Jordana Comiter, PEOPLE, 27 Apr. 2026
Definition of infuriates
Verb
  • Tilling or plowing in the summer disturbs the soil's delicate ecosystem and exposes moist soil to rapid water loss.
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 24 June 2026
  • The pier in Michigan City’s Washington Park disturbs the natural flow of sand along the lakeshore, creating new land east of the pier but starving beaches to the west, an erosion problem repeated by other manmade structures that jut out into Lake Michigan.
    — Doug Ross, Chicago Tribune, 15 June 2026
Definition of disturbs
Verb
  • According to the myth, Agamemnon angers the goddess Artemis by killing one of her sacred deer.
    — Britt Hayes, Entertainment Weekly, 20 July 2026
  • Lai, who won election two years ago, and his ruling DPP champion Taiwan’s separate identity from China, a position ​that frequently angers Beijing, which views the island as an inviolable part of Chinese territory.
    — Reuters, NBC news, 19 July 2026
Definition of angers
Verb
  • This cultural debate distracts from systemic policy failures and the high cost of raising children, which makes motherhood an economic battleground.
    — Julia Korn, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
  • Mother’s explosion distracts Blaine and frees Sam.
    — Dessi Gomez, Deadline, 22 May 2026
Definition of distracts
Verb
  • The ghostly character doesn't have a particularly significant role in the story, but is a constant nuisance in the tapestry of Hogwarts with antics that include throwing things, making messes, pulling pranks, and generally causing mischief that enrages caretaker Argus Filch.
    — Shania Russell, Entertainment Weekly, 15 June 2026
  • This is exactly the kind of mainstream Christian view that enrages Allie Beth Stuckey.
    — Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Atlantic, 29 Jan. 2026
Definition of enrages
Verb
  • These opportunists drown out the core mission, creating a cacophony of competing voices that confuses donors, crowd the inboxes of CEOs and members of Congress with colliding petitions, and paralyzes meaningful action by draining critical funding and attention away from the truly effective groups.
    — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Time, 28 June 2026
  • But nobody confuses Harvard Extension School classes with the real thing.
    — Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 23 June 2026
Definition of confuses
Verb
  • Hotel-booking platform HotelTonight surveyed 447 of its American adult users in June about what annoys them the most during travel.
    — Kathleen Wong, USA Today, 21 July 2026
  • But Turner is a symbol for everything that annoys people about the Phillies.
    — Matt Gelb, New York Times, 19 July 2026
Definition of annoys
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.

Browse Nearby Words

maddening
maddens
madding
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Maddens.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/maddens. Accessed 24 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on maddens

Nglish: Translation of maddens for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of itinerant

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Do you 'say your piece' or 'say your peace'?

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 24

Why do we say 'fly off the handle'?
See More

Popular

See More

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
chain-question-mark
Missing Link Quiz July 2026 Five seconds to figure out the word that fits bot...
See All