1
as in disdainful
feeling or showing open dislike for someone or something regarded as undeserving of respect or concern
loutish tourists who are contemptuous of the ways and traditions of their host countries
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in slighting
intended to make a person or thing seem of little importance or value
contemptuous comments about the baseball team's pathetic showings
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Recent Examples of contemptuous
Critics have affixed to his output any number of adjectives meant to communicate its basic darkness: acerbic, malicious, cruel, contemptuous.
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Brandon Sanchez, Vulture, 25 Oct. 2024
The rocket lifted away slowly, as though in contemptuous defiance of physics.
—David W. Brown, The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2024
With less than a week until Election Day, any miscalculation—especially one involving language perceived as contemptuous—can have far-reaching consequences.
—Nik Popli, TIME, 31 Oct. 2024
The reviews, his included, were a bit contemptuous.
—Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 25 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for contemptuous 
Brandon Sanchez, Vulture, 25 Oct. 2024
The rocket lifted away slowly, as though in contemptuous defiance of physics.
—David W. Brown, The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2024
With less than a week until Election Day, any miscalculation—especially one involving language perceived as contemptuous—can have far-reaching consequences.
—Nik Popli, TIME, 31 Oct. 2024
The reviews, his included, were a bit contemptuous.
—Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 25 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for contemptuous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for contemptuous
Adjective
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Just days before the Nov. 5 general election, at a time when both campaigns are fighting for voters’ attention, Biden’s remark has given the Trump campaign fodder to portray Biden and the Democrats as divisive or disdainful of Trump’s base of supporters.Shawn Raymundo, The Arizona Republic, 1 Nov. 2024
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Piketty’s inattention to that problem comes across as deliberate and almost disdainful.Arvind Subramanian, Foreign Affairs, 9 June 2020
Adjective
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Yet feeling out of place has, ironically, brought Escola even closer to their Mary Todd Lincoln, whose fear that a scornful world might keep her offstage gives the show an unexpected pathos.Julian Lucas, The New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2024
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The president has outlined a deeply misguided foreign policy vision that is distrustful of U.S. allies, scornful of international institutions, and indifferent, if not downright hostile, to the liberal international order that the United States has sustained for nearly eight decades.Eliot A. Cohen, Foreign Affairs, 11 Dec. 2018
Adjective
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Arizona State football fans slam 'truly insulting' College Football Playoff graphic Winter swoon: December has not been kind to Phoenix Suns in recent years The vehicle backed out of the driveway and into the road.Olivia Rose, The Arizona Republic, 13 Dec. 2024
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The dawning of his second term has invoked jubilation from those who welcome Trump back to the Oval Office and fear from those alarmed by his insulting rhetoric about political opponents, the media, migrants and others.Alexandria Burris, The Indianapolis Star, 14 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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Some media outlets are surrendering to Trump already This absurd boasting — arrogant without portfolio — is just what Trump is looking for in the VOA job.Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 13 Dec. 2024
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The single-camera series follows the arrogant, loudmouth U.S. Army Colonel Patrick Quinn (Leary), who, after an unfiltered rant, is reassigned to the Netherlands, where he is punished with a command position at the least important army base in the world.Denise Petski, Deadline, 9 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Four vulnerabilities in WebKit were fixed in iOS 18.2, allowing memory corruption if you were persuaded to interact with malicious web content.Kate O'Flaherty, Forbes, 12 Dec. 2024
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The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices.Kurt Knutsson, CyberGuy Report, Fox News, 11 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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The scene was particularly challenging for Hoult, who had to convey with passionate conviction an ideology that is personally abhorrent to him.Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 27 Nov. 2024
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This is the latest abhorrent act in the regime’s long history of transnational repression and accelerating rate of executions.Benjamin Weinthal, Fox News, 28 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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The 2023 Economic Report Of The President published in March of 2023 was relatively disparaging of cryptoassets and DLTs.Lawrence Wintermeyer, Forbes, 5 Dec. 2024
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Prior to appearing on Cunningham's show on Monday, Huggins made more disparaging remarks about Xavier.Emily DeLetter, The Enquirer, 10 May 2023
Adjective
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By the time Lovely Runner’s series finale dropped in late May, millions of K-drama fans around the world had become invested in the story of Sol and Sun-jae, desperate to find out if their love could withstand the cruel vagaries of fate.Kayti Burt, TIME, 18 Dec. 2024
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The gods prove cruel but not omnipotent, and the modern settings exert their own redemptive pull; the final effect is that of a magic trick, in which the characters manage, in each film’s miraculous closing moments, to slip the bonds of tragedy.Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 18 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near contemptuous
Cite this Entry
“Contemptuous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/contemptuous. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.
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