as in cruel
feeling or showing a desire to cause harm or pain
a mean-spirited person He wrote a mean-spirited book review.
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Recent Examples of mean-spirited
While most are supportive, a fair number are critical, even mean-spirited.
—
Barbara Vandenburgh, USA TODAY, 16 June 2023
Barbara Vandenburgh, USA TODAY, 16 June 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mean-spirited
Adjective
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His lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, sought to show that his past had formed him, but there was a cruel irony in the reference.—
Gaby Wood,
Vogue,
21 Feb. 2026
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Many of these schools are impossibly competitive – impossibly and fantastically cruel.—
Anastasia Tsioulcas,
NPR,
20 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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There are fun villains; Reggie’s nemesis is a sneakily vicious NFL alum (Craig Robinson) with the splendid name Jerry Basmati.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
20 Feb. 2026
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Anderson received the Sydney Schanberg Prize for his reporting on decades of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where regional and global actors have fuelled one of the world’s most vicious entrenched conflicts.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
18 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Are human beings prone to doing hateful things?—
Tara Sonenshine,
Baltimore Sun,
9 Feb. 2026
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Logan Paul called out his brother Jake Paul for his hateful take on the Bad Bunny halftime show.—
Prince J. Grimes,
USA Today,
9 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Failing to check abatement expiration dates creates nasty surprises when incentives end.—
Allison Palmer
Updated February 20,
Kansas City Star,
20 Feb. 2026
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The club’s record £125million signing suffered a nasty leg break away to Spurs in December.—
Caoimhe O'Neill,
New York Times,
19 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The pitching news continues to be unkind.—
Chad Bishop,
AJC.com,
20 Feb. 2026
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Ones like Michael Dell, from the eponymous hardware company, and Laura Alber, CEO of Williams-Sonoma , and David Joyner from CVS Health , where the kind agentic robots replace the unkind robots who tell you which number to press and please don’t forget the #.—
Jim Cramer,
CNBC,
15 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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By and large, Kenny comes off as a nice guy, if not a smidge obnoxious.—
Jordan Hoffman,
Entertainment Weekly,
15 Feb. 2026
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When an obnoxious influencer (Zach Galifianakis, delightfully punchable) dies in a freak accident at her gallery, Polina decides to pass off his corpse as an exhibition centerpiece.—
Kathleen Newman-Bremang,
Refinery29,
28 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Tourette’s can feel spiteful and searches out the most upsetting tic for me personally and for those around me.—
Clayton Davis,
Variety,
24 Feb. 2026
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What does that mean, a spiteful number?—
Judith Shulevitz,
The Atlantic,
17 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Hogg, who had a brief and tumultuous stint as a DNC co–vice chair in early 2025, is contemptuous of the party’s lingering cohort of elder leaders.—
Mark Leibovich,
The Atlantic,
11 Feb. 2026
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Written in a joking and contemptuous tone, the tweet would take on an indescribably morbid weight just five days later, when, at the behest of Governor Cláudio Castro, the Rio de Janeiro police carried out the deadliest massacre in the country’s history.—
Evandro Cruz Silva,
The Dial,
10 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mean-spirited.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mean-spirited. Accessed 26 Feb. 2026.
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