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 Synonyms for mean-spirited
Adjective
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Passing a child who is unprepared may be the cruelest act of all.
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This is your news to share or not share; posting about this on Facebook strikes me as cruel.
Adjective
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The story follows vicious ex-con, Max Cady (Bardem) and his revenge plot against married couple Tom (Patrick Wilson) and Anna Bowden (Adams).
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Mahmic’s vicious goal in traffic salvaged some good feeling before a decisive showdown with Qatar next week.
Adjective
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Conservatives are often accused of being divisive, hateful and exclusionary.
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On Sunday, June 14, UFC fighter Josh Hokit took the opportunity after his win on the White House lawn to repeat a hateful lie about the former first lady.
Adjective
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Those early 2010s Blackhawks teams were nasty, and they were all led by Toews.
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Lindy Ruff’s system was a tough fit, and a nasty ankle injury derailed his initial momentum in upstate New York.
Adjective
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The market is now doing what project-finance investors are meant to do, testing the cash flow and asking who is left holding the risk if the day of refinancing is unkind.
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The action starts at Long Island’s historically unkind Shinnecock Hills on Thursday.
Adjective
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His character, Andrew Fung, is written to be obnoxious – cartoonishly, gleefully, exhaustingly so.
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Citadel was successful but borderline obnoxious.
Adjective
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Everyone has an acid tongue and brims with spiteful resentment.
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However nasty and spiteful things get between the Butleys and the del Valles, there’s always the sense that a détente may still be possible.
Adjective
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The Uganda Law Society demanded Lukwago's immediate release, saying his arrest was contemptuous of court processes.
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Koenig’s former Yankees teammates were contemptuous of that miserly decision.
Cite this Entry
“Mean-spirited.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mean-spirited. Accessed 26 Jun. 2026.
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