MEAN-SPIRITEDNESS Synonyms: 78 Similar and Opposite Words

mean-spiritedness

noun

as in animosity

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

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.

Recent Examples of mean-spiritedness Every day this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and recklessness and mean-spiritedness and just plain craziness. — Halle Troadec, ABC News, 2 Nov. 2025 There’s a weird mean-spiritedness amongst young male losers that is harming them. — Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025 There was a mean-spiritedness that the white COs up in the mountains had for us that the Black and brown ones who guarded us in Sing Sing did not. — John J. Lennon september 24, Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for mean-spiritedness

Noun

Knight paid Shakur’s bail and signed him to Death Row Records in Los Angeles, absorbing his artist’s growing animosity toward Combs, Wallace and their Bad Boy Records circle in New York.

— Lisa Respers France, CNN Money, 24 Aug. 2026
Some farmers feel animosity toward the peach association for not getting ahead of the Del Monte bankruptcy and for not doing more to help farmers now that the damage has been done.

— Lizzie Kane, Sacbee.com, 23 Aug. 2026

Definition of animosity

Noun

The Very Online meanness, and attendant allegations of sexism and élitism, carries echoes of the rift between the Clintonites and the Bernie Bros; El-Sayed has talked openly of using a victory to shape the 2028 Presidential field.

— Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026
Sometimes the irony turns bitter and, with a typically Eastern European sensibility, highlights the paradoxes of institutions, as well as the madness and meanness born from the pursuit and preservation of power.

— Zac Ntim, Deadline, 8 June 2026

Definition of meanness

Noun

In what is often considered Pelechian’s magnum opus, the ancient antagonism of nature and humanity plays out in a depiction of a remote farming community, energetically scored with Armenian folk music and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

— Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 18 Aug. 2026
But the trash-talking and, especially, antagonism over race and ethnicity is gratuitous and needlessly divisive.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 2 Aug. 2026

Definition of antagonism

Noun

Funding for refugee support is drying up, hostility toward Ukrainians is growing, and Poland still lacks a long-term integration strategy.

— ABC News, ABC News, 25 Aug. 2026
Iran accepted meaningful limits on its nuclear program in 2015, for instance, and reversed decades of hostility toward Saudi Arabia by normalizing ties in 2023.

— Nate Swanson, Foreign Affairs, 25 Aug. 2026

Definition of hostility

Noun

On a day of love and spite and contrasts, his words resonate.

— George Caulkin, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026
Magneto’s words are said in spite to Charles, the man who will miss him the most — who cradles his helmet for hours after Apocalypse has gone, and who keeps reliving the memory of his death over and over again throughout the season.

— Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 13 Aug. 2026

Definition of spite

Noun

Though there’s never been a real reason given for the enmity, there have been enough talk at this point that most people believe the two are at odds.

— Lizzie Lanuza, StyleCaster, 25 Aug. 2026
Four years later, Hanke earned great controversy, and the enmity of the Clinton administration, by heeding a request from Indonesia’s president Suharto.

— Shawn Tully, Fortune, 20 Aug. 2026

Definition of enmity

Browse Nearby Words

mean-spirited

mean-spiritedness

meant

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Mean-spiritedness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mean-spiritedness. Accessed 29 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of mean-spiritedness

noun

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

kith

Popular in Grammar & Usage

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

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

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

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Commonly Misspelled Words

Popular in Wordplay

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Aug. 28

Why do we say 'break a leg'?

Popular

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Games & Quizzes