as in cruel
feeling or showing a desire to cause harm or pain
a mean-spirited person He wrote a mean-spirited book review.
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of mean-spirited
While most are supportive, a fair number are critical, even mean-spirited.
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Barbara Vandenburgh, USA TODAY, 16 June 2023
Barbara Vandenburgh, USA TODAY, 16 June 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mean-spirited
Adjective
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Some Rochester residents disagree and find their city’s methods excessively cruel to the birds.Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 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
Adjective
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That's what's happened in House of the Dragon season 2's vicious civil war, the Dance of the Dragons.David Faris, Newsweek, 28 Dec. 2024
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The 2024 adaptation of Nosferatu, the second cinematic remake of the German Expressionist classic, stars horror mainstay Skarsgård (It, Barbarian) as the vicious Count Orlok.Celia Mattison, Vulture, 27 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Each forfeiture announcement unleashed appalling, hateful messages individuals chose to send directly to our student-athletes, our coaching staff and many associated with our program.Jackson Thompson, Fox News, 20 Dec. 2024
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Its members have faced hateful comments, unfair criticism and privacy breaches that have threatened their mental health.Gabriel Saulog, Billboard, 18 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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At its simplest, while tracking cookies are a nasty underpin to the internet, they can be seen and controlled, whether by those website popups or electing to use some form of private browsing that blocks such cookies altogether.Zak Doffman, Forbes, 21 Dec. 2024
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But the only bacteria raw or pasteurized milk contain are the nasty kind—salmonella, campylobacter and the like, according to the FDA.Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 20 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Moving forward, Heughan warns fans that Jamie’s response to Claire and Lord John’s activities in his absence will be surprising and unkind.Hunter Ingram, Variety, 7 Dec. 2024
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Most people don’t go to work with the intention of being unkind.Anna Shields, Forbes, 21 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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There were a lot of people who had come to Newport just to hear Bob Dylan, the friend of the Beatles, play ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and who were being really obnoxious about the other acts.Chris Willman, Variety, 26 Dec. 2024
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The wallflower being bullied by the obnoxious rapper has a callous side.Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 26 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Biden has the historic opportunity to spare countless Americans from the fear of retaliation by a spiteful bully.Pierce O'Donnell, The Mercury News, 12 Dec. 2024
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Also, Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose memorably spiteful villain is an IMAX-sized testament to the late actor’s talent.David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 19 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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Evie, who has recently married another woman, is contemptuous of a religion that doesn’t hold space for her identity.Alex Jhamb Burns, Vogue, 16 Dec. 2024
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Reporters circle, looking for a chance to embarrass the military for accepting Black women into its ranks, while male colleagues are openly disrespectful, with Gen. Halt (Dean Norris) setting a contemptuous example from the top.Peter Debruge, Variety, 6 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near mean-spirited
Cite this Entry
“Mean-spirited.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mean-spirited. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.
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