truculent

adjective

tru·cu·lent ˈtrə-kyə-lənt

also ˈtrü-

Synonyms of truculent next

: aggressively self-assertive : belligerent

: scathingly harsh : vitriolic

truculent criticism

: feeling or displaying ferocity : cruel, savage

: deadly, destructive

truculently adverb

Did you know?

Truculent derives from truculentus, a form of the Latin adjective trux, meaning "savage." It has been used in English since the 16th century to describe people or things that are cruel and ferocious, such as tyrannical leaders, and has also come to mean "deadly or destructive" (as in "a truculent disease"). In current use, however, it has lost much of its etymological fierceness. It now frequently serves to describe speech or writing that is notably harsh (as in "truculent criticism") or a person who is notably self-assertive and surly ("a truculent schoolboy"). Some usage commentators have criticized these extended uses because they do not match the savagery of the word's original sense, but they are well-established and perfectly standard.

Examples of truculent in a Sentence

The hard work is to demonstrate exactly how the outsize Churchillian personality, so truculent, so impulsive, so often profoundly wrongheaded, became, in the dark spring of 1940, just what was needed for national survival. —

Simon Schama, New York Review of Books, 28 Feb. 2002

Milton—in his prose an opinionated and truculent writer—remains a magnet for opinionated and truculent criticism. —

Helen Vendler, New Republic, 30 July 2001

Within a year of publishing The Female Eunuch, she had debated Norman Mailer in a truculent disputation at Town Hall in New York, turned up on the cover of Life magazine as the "saucy feminist that even men like," and inspired innumerable women to stop wearing underpants. —

Margaret Talbot, New Republic, 31 May 1999

… in the breast pocket of her police uniform she carried a small silver figurine of Durga, the Hindu goddess of shakti: power and strength. Defiant and truculent, she flashed a cheeky grin. —

Mary Anne Weaver, Atlantic, November 1996

Challenged to a fight by a truculent layabout on the playing fields of St. James's primary school one Saturday, he had replied to his aggressor's taunts with his own war cries … —

Wole Soyinka, Isara, 1989

die-hard fans who became truculent and violent after their team's loss a theater critic who was notorious for his titanically truculent reviews

Recent Examples on the Web

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.

Deda’s son, Karel (a terrific turn from Karel Martinec, the filmmaker’s own father) is an ornery recent widower who is truculent with his two adult daughters Lucie (Pavlína Balner) and Romana (Karin Bilíková). —

Jessica Kiang, Variety, 5 July 2024 Needing Maher’s truculent approval to sustain their own arguments, they’re defined by their enemy. —

Armond White, National Review, 7 June 2024 Little kids squirm in makeshift beds trying to stay awake for Santa, while truculent teenagers sneak out into the suburban night to do secret teenager things. —

Jessica Kiang, Variety, 17 May 2024 Russia’s truculent and obstructionist foreign policy under President Vladimir Putin comes from a sense of having lost the Cold War in the 1980s and having suffered the consequences of the defeat in the 1990s. —

Odd Arne Westad, Foreign Affairs, 27 Mar. 2018 See all Example Sentences for truculent