Synonyms of unruliness

unruliness

noun

as in rebellion

refusal to obey

frustrated by the boys' unruliness, the lifeguard asked them to leave the pool

Synonyms & Similar Words

• rebellion
• defiance
• rebelliousness
• willfulness
• disrespect
• disobedience
• insubordination
• waywardness
• contrariness
• recalcitrance
• rudeness
• intractability
• contumacy
• refractoriness
• obstreperousness
• frowardness
• stubbornness
• balkiness
• civil disobedience
• noncooperation
• perversity
• inconsiderateness
• insolence
• impoliteness
• obstinacy
• peevishness
• tenacity
• impudence
• inconsideration
• obduracy
• pigheadedness
• pertinacity
• self-will
• ungraciousness
• mischievousness
• doggedness
• tenaciousness
• naughtiness
• impertinence
• discourteousness
• obdurateness
• hardheadedness
• knavery
• obstinateness
• mulishness
• pertinaciousness

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• subordination
• compliance
• obedience
• submission
• tractability
• amiability
• agreeability
• amenability
• subservience
• submissiveness
• slavishness
• subserviency
• subordinateness
• tractableness
• deference
• docility
• trainability
• dutifulness

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of unruliness

Conservative pundits may have wanted Anne to be a model orphan, but that desire just threw her unruliness into sharper relief. — Literary Hub, 26 Aug. 2026

Katseye doesn’t seem to get in as much trouble as K-pop idols have in the past for swearing; a patina of unruliness has endeared the group to its followers. — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 21 Aug. 2026

In 2024, Buffett offered prescient reflections on the unruliness of the market, long before the prediction markets began to sway Wall Street. — Jacqueline Munis, Fortune, 28 Apr. 2026

In Olga Tokarczuk’s work, knowing how to pick mushrooms—organisms open to unruliness and interconnection and resistant to easy labeling—is a sign of good character. — Christopher Tayler, The New York Review of Books, 2 Oct. 2025

Any unruliness was saved for the sketches. — Rachel Syme, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025

Bateman commits to his character’s wiry unruliness and makes Vince into a self-destructive twit, which is probably by intent. — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 16 Sep. 2025