1
as in contemptuous
feeling or showing open dislike for someone or something regarded as undeserving of respect or concern
the actress gave the paparazzi a scornful glare before breezing on by them
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in slighting
intended to make a person or thing seem of little importance or value
the tenant's complaints were met with the scornful observation that he expected too much for the rent he was paying
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of scornful
The Nosotros people had returned Borja’s bribe money to him with no comment, only scornful silence, but the sting of the snub had not gone very deep.
—
Charles Portis, Harper's Magazine, 28 Feb. 2025
This is the trapped subject, the voice crying out in the wilderness, seeking a response from the Everything but getting only the scornful bounce-back of itself.
—James Parker, The Atlantic, 18 Feb. 2025
With the scornful wave spreading across social media, Marvel waded in to stem the tide.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 5 Feb. 2025
What price female solidarity and empowerment, after all, if the weapon of actualization is an abusive system, one that invariably draws Santosh into its clubby, scornful, vigilante mindset?
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 10 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for scornful
Charles Portis, Harper's Magazine, 28 Feb. 2025
This is the trapped subject, the voice crying out in the wilderness, seeking a response from the Everything but getting only the scornful bounce-back of itself.
—James Parker, The Atlantic, 18 Feb. 2025
With the scornful wave spreading across social media, Marvel waded in to stem the tide.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 5 Feb. 2025
What price female solidarity and empowerment, after all, if the weapon of actualization is an abusive system, one that invariably draws Santosh into its clubby, scornful, vigilante mindset?
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 10 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for scornful
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scornful
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
-
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
Adjective
-
Trump has even been disdainful or dismissive of the United States’ traditional allies, such as Mexico and Argentina.—
Christopher Sabatini,
Foreign Affairs,
8 Nov. 2017
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Wise minds inside the Trump administration will hopefully choose to drop a suit first introduced during by a Biden administration reflexively disdainful of big.—
John Tamny,
Forbes.com,
10 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni is insulting because a macaroni was a pejorative term used to describe a fashionable man with feminine traits of 18th-century Britain.—
Kurt Snibbe,
Oc Register,
2 July 2025
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Conversations revealed an ongoing dialogue that was not only deeply insulting to Read, but morally offensive to women broadly.—
Gemma Allen,
Forbes.com,
25 June 2025
Adjective
-
In 2022, Ackles joined the cast of Prime Video's The Boys as arrogant superhero Soldier Boy.—
Brianne Tracy,
People.com,
4 July 2025
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Her larger-than-life ego and past as a shaman make Player 044 come off as arrogant and selfish, getting under just about everyone's skin.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
4 July 2025
Adjective
-
Deepfakes have been growing more sophisticated in recent years, in addition to being increasingly deployed for malicious purposes.—
Shannon Bond,
NPR,
10 July 2025
-
The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have antivirus software installed on all your devices.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
10 July 2025
Adjective
-
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
-
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
-
This subsided with unusual speed, however, as cricket fans took instead to sharing the self-deprecatory jokes coming over the border.—
The Economist,
The Economist,
22 June 2019
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Philipps has acquired her 1-million-and-growing Instagram followers through her self-deprecatory humor, raw honesty and vulnerability.—
Sonja Haller,
USA TODAY,
11 July 2018
Adjective
-
During a lecture on Holocaust denial and distortion, there was unanimous agreement that such behavior was abhorrent.—
Sarah Meira Schlager,
Sun Sentinel,
2 July 2025
-
Detective Hwang Jun-ho’s (Wi Ha-jun) procedural-like quest to follow Gi-hun back to the island, in hopes of shutting down the abhorrent competition and confronting his brother the Front Man, dominated the first two episodes; once the games began, Jun-ho and his crew mostly drifted around, lost.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
27 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Scornful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scornful. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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