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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Politics remains a cruel business and the governor has been on the frontline of it for nearly 20 years, winning and losing.—
Kevin Rennie,
Hartford Courant,
5 July 2025
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They were joined by actors playing the contestants, who lurched along wearing expressions of exaggerated horror, as though the cruel stakes of the game had just been revealed to them.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
4 July 2025
Adjective
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The author presents a vicious takedown of George Washington.—
Chadd Scott,
Forbes.com,
9 July 2025
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Stanton, demonstrating that there’s still plenty of power in his vicious swing, sent the pitch 401 feet the other way at 106.1 mph.—
Gary Phillips,
New York Daily News,
9 July 2025
Adjective
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Hoxton Grove Estate is shrouded in bad vibes, from Jess’s fighting neighbors — a group of women who have been, by turns, loving and hateful toward each other all season, their intensity coming to a head when one of them is seduced by the other’s boyfriend — to Felix’s lethargy.—
Rafaela Bassili,
Vulture,
11 July 2025
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Being a private equity venture, Substack directly profits from its creators, hateful and hopeful alike.—
Brittany Allen,
Literary Hub,
10 July 2025
Adjective
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Her somewhat implausible problem is that her bad feelings—her irritation, her boredom—never register as such because of her beauty, her wealth, and her pedigree; so great is her beauty that even her nastiest moods feel like a sunny glow to others.—
Claire Jarvis,
New Yorker,
8 July 2025
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But use kind humor, not nasty or deprecating humor.—
Davia Temin,
Forbes.com,
6 July 2025
Adjective
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The planet's environmental conditions have proven unkind to the prehistoric animals unleashed all over the world, while humanity has pretty much lost all interest in these majestic creatures.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
2 July 2025
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Not because the caregiver was unkind but because emotional safety wasn’t what they had been conditioned to anticipate.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
18 June 2025
Adjective
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Meanwhile, Harrison — who fled to New York City and now works at an upscale Manhattan hotel — crosses paths with an obnoxious guest/serial rapist, Ryan Foster (Bryan Lillis).—
EW.com,
EW.com,
10 July 2025
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Hostile and unwelcoming, Elisabeth actually comes off like a typical Parisian, ill-suited to the task of accompanying obnoxious rich people into their overpriced rentals.—
Jordan Mintzer,
HollywoodReporter,
8 July 2025
Adjective
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But to unsuspecting humans, killer bees seem aggressive, spiteful and, of course, terrifying.—
Rebecca Morin,
USA Today,
24 June 2025
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But there’s a qualitative difference with a spiteful, foul-mouthed, score-settling president leading by acrid example.—
Mark Z. Barabak,
Mercury News,
27 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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By contrast, there’s something almost nakedly contemptuous about the end of this season.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
30 May 2025
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That’s fine by an administration that seems basically contemptuous of the very concept of due process.—
New York Daily News Editorial Board,
New York Daily News,
31 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Mean-spirited.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mean-spirited. Accessed 16 Jul. 2025.
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