scabrous

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective scabrous contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of scabrous are harsh, rough, rugged, and uneven. While all these words mean "not smooth or even," scabrous implies scaliness or prickliness of surface.

a scabrous leaf

Where would harsh be a reasonable alternative to scabrous?

The meanings of harsh and scabrous largely overlap; however, harsh implies a surface or texture distinctly unpleasant to the touch.

a harsh fabric that chafes the skin

When would rough be a good substitute for scabrous?

While in some cases nearly identical to scabrous, rough implies points, bristles, ridges, or projections on the surface.

a rough wooden board

When could rugged be used to replace scabrous?

While the synonyms rugged and scabrous are close in meaning, rugged implies irregularity or roughness of land surface and connotes difficulty of travel.

a rugged landscape

When is it sensible to use uneven instead of scabrous?

The words uneven and scabrous can be used in similar contexts, but uneven implies a lack of uniformity in height, breadth, or quality.

an old house with uneven floors

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 scabrous In the world of The Boys, based on the gleefully scabrous 2000s indie comic-book series of the same name by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson, superheroes are real, pop-culture-dominating, and with rare exceptions, entirely unheroic. Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 13 June 2024 At nearly three hours, the anthology film was divisive: Some hailed its scabrous take on human nature as brilliant, and others derided it as bloated. Matt Donnelly, Variety, 21 May 2024 Malcolm is the pressure-release valve in Baumbach's scabrous follow-up to 2005's The Squid and the Whale, and one of many points of contention between Margot and Pauline. Erik Adams, EW.com, 18 July 2023 This dirty Pommie duo make scabrous gold on UK Grim, their 12th studio album. Spin Staff, SPIN, 12 Dec. 2023 See All Example Sentences for scabrous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scabrous
Adjective
  • To help out, the police send over a troubled (or troublesome?) detective, Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett).
    Ben Travers, IndieWire, 27 June 2025
  • According to Brennan, the most troublesome law enforcement officers were 5,000 men deputized by the U.S. marshal.
    Robert Loerzel, Chicago Tribune, 22 June 2025
Adjective
  • The reentry of space objects has been a vexing problem since the beginning of the space age, McKnight told Space.com, because there are at least three physical phenomena that all have large uncertainties.
    Leonard David, Space.com, 23 June 2025
  • This is why the story of his rise and fall—and then his rise again—is so vexing.
    Tyler Foggatt, New Yorker, 24 May 2025
Adjective
  • Both were armed with their own social media companies, spewing ad hominem attacks, with vexatious claims playing out in public.
    Dan Perry, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 June 2025
  • This third vexatious attempt will fail to do anything other than prove that the signatories have less intelligence —and independent thoughts — than sheep.
    Sophie Clark Shane Croucher, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 June 2025
Adjective
  • All of which can be employed by Musk or anyone else using AI to target us with false political advertising tailored to our most stubborn biases, further dividing us, manipulating elections and solidifying what has already become a fascist state.
    Sal Recchi, The Orlando Sentinel, 22 June 2025
  • Then Curry, rattled by the monumental reverb of Kyrie’s shot, hurried into a stubborn approach on the ensuing possession, missed a desperate 3 over Kevin Love, who used his length and a rare display of defensive intensity to deny Curry a good look.
    David Aldridge, New York Times, 22 June 2025
Adjective
  • Starting And Stopping An Intelligence Explosion There are additional controversies in this worrisome basket.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025
  • California has seen more measles cases this year than all of 2024 The worrisome development comes as the nation is suffering its largest outbreak of the super-infectious disease in decades.
    Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2025
Adjective
  • The event is the culmination of a monthslong production by wedding planners and, very likely, by teams of lawyers who have combed through the couple’s complex finances to create an ironclad prenuptial agreement.
    Alicia Adamczyk, Fortune, 27 June 2025
  • Lee Jung-jae says his measure of success for his own performance is telegraphing the complex morality of his character, as Gi-hun constantly calculates the correctness of his choices.
    Judy Berman, Time, 27 June 2025
Adjective
  • Social Security’s internal workings are so recondite and poorly understood by average voters that numerous possible ways of imposing benefit cuts or otherwise harming the program are hiding in plain sight.
    Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 26 Nov. 2024
  • In retrospect, the integer distance problem was waiting for mathematicians who were willing to consider more unruly curves than hyperbolas and then draw on recondite tools from algebraic geometry and number theory to tame them.
    Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 1 Apr. 2024
Adjective
  • What High-Tact Leadership Looks Like Tact isn’t abstract.
    Justin Patton, Forbes.com, 25 June 2025
  • Advertisement Read More: Losing NOAA’s Natural Disaster Data Will Make Storms More Devastating for the Poor While these cuts may seem abstract or bureaucratic, their impact is personal.
    Kathy Baughman McLeod, Time, 24 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Scabrous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scabrous. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.

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