1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

pet peeves

noun

plural of pet peeve
as in problems
US something that annoys or bothers a person very much One of my biggest pet peeves is people driving too slowly on the highway.

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for pet peeves
problems
Noun
  • Following the coach’s firing in July 2023, more than 260 Northwestern faculty members signed a petition calling for the stadium plans to be halted until at least athletic department’s problems could be sorted out.
    — Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 25 Sep. 2026
  • Look, for example, at how even today’s AI has repeatedly solved mathematical problems within weeks or months — problems whose complexity had been foiling human mathematicians for decades or longer.
    — Keith Tidman, Baltimore Sun, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of problems
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

pet peeve
pet peeves
petrified
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Pet peeves.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pet%20peeves. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
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 heterodox

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

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

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

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

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 2

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

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
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All