cantankerous

adjective

kan-ˈtaŋ-k(ə-)rəs How to pronounce cantankerous (audio)
Definition of cantankerousnext
as in irritable
having or showing a habitually bad temper a cantankerous old woman who insisted that nothing should ever be allowed to change

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 cantankerous Encore revisits that album’s musical ingredients and amorous but intermittently cantankerous spirit. — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2026 Beneath the song's upbeat melody and the movie's cantankerous humor, both deliver a powerful message that women deserve equal pay and treatment in the workplace. — Kamaron McNair, CNBC, 26 Aug. 2026 Lillard’s Portland homecoming After having spent the first 11 years of his career adored in Portland, guard Damian Lillard left the city in a cantankerous exit in 2023 for Milwaukee to give Antetokounmpo what was supposed to be a championship boost. — Andrew Greif, NBC news, 13 Aug. 2026 Carroll O'Connor played the cantankerous antihero Archie Bunker, legendary for firing off his grumpy, bigoted views. — Skyler Trepel, Entertainment Weekly, 12 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for cantankerous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cantankerous
  1. irritable
  2. angry
  3. ornery
  4. surly
  5. disagreeable
  6. dyspeptic
  7. splenetic
  8. bilious
Adjective
  • Could be because for much of the running time, Abrams’ Jay Gardiner is up against what looks like a very large irritable sphincter.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Coach There’s no better feeling than walking into your last show of the day, irritable and hungry, only to discover that snacks are being served.
    — Anna Grace Lee, Vogue, 17 Sep. 2026
Definition of irritable
Adjective
  • Protests by high school students angry about dilapidated, understaffed schools have roiled France since mid-September.
    — JOHN LEICESTER, Arkansas Online, 15 Oct. 2026
  • Keeping The Faith So all’s well that ends well, and frantic, for Halfway 2 Jesus, Rock’s 13th album and the follow-up to 2022’s angry, politically charged Bad Reputation.
    — Gary Graff, Billboard, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of angry
Adjective
  • White and Madison are sort of like Tom Cruise and Demi Moore, building a mountain of evidence against the company, while Strong is playing an ornery witness a la Jack Nicholson.
    — Marcus Jones, IndieWire, 7 Oct. 2026
  • But however janky, the system just about works for the ornery menfolk muddling their way through it, with their many beefs mostly resolved with a bottle of lethally alcoholic local tipple chacha, or a punch to the face, or both.
    — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of ornery
Adjective
  • The normally surly Super Bowl winning head coach has been known to chew up and spit out even the most veteran of sideline reporters, even while his team is eviscerating the competition.
    — Austin Perry OutKick, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2026
  • The United States is now a reluctant international donor and a surly member of key international organizations.
    — Anna Nelson, Foreign Affairs, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of surly
Adjective
  • Mistaking being disagreeable with the act of disagreeing is common - especially in unsafe psychological workplaces.
    — Kate Wieczorek, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026
  • There are also a lot of people who have never dreamed of being disagreeable in public, much less considered joining a raucous social movement.
    — Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 12 June 2026
Definition of disagreeable
Adjective
  • Once upon a time, the idea that the world was growing stupider was mostly confined to the realm of dyspeptic reactionary polemic.
    — James Marriott, Washington Post, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Govan might prevail on Lucas to join as well, as an idiosyncratic and dyspeptic if public-minded voice.
    — Gary Baum, HollywoodReporter, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of dyspeptic
Adjective
  • Still, the internet nurtures these Hobbesian, splenetic views.
    — Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic, 24 May 2026
  • Meanwhile, the commentator and controversialist Piers Morgan, an obsessively close observer and relentless critic of Meghan, inevitably waded in with his usual splenetic views.
    — Sarah Lyall, New York Times, 17 Sep. 2022
Definition of splenetic
Adjective
  • Ready to Wear, the bilious bomb of a film in which Robert Altman took aim at the fashion industry with an elephant gun—and missed.
    — Charles Gandee, Vogue, 27 Sep. 2026
  • Look the steady coarsening of American civic and political culture and the ways in which the once-outrageous—the bilious, hateful rhetoric and the creeping authoritarianism—have become almost ordinary.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 July 2026
Definition of bilious

Browse Nearby Words

cant
cantankerous
cantankerousness
See all Nearby Words

Podcast

Cite this Entry

“Cantankerous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cantankerous. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of jilt

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

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

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Did 'orange' the fruit or the color come first?

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

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

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
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
artwork of illustrated limes with the text limes and smile with an arrow connecting the two words
Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Scramble these words to find new words with the e...
See All