Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Bilious

Definitions: Bilious

Bilious

Adjective

1. Relating to or containing bile.

2. Suffering from or suggesting a liver disorder or gastric distress.

3. Irritable as if suffering from indigestion.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "bilious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

 

Synonyms: Bilious

Synonyms: atrabilious (adj), biliary (adj), dyspeptic (adj), liverish (adj), livery (adj). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Bilious

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Dejection

Sad, pensive, penseroso, tristful; dolesome, doleful; woebegone; lacrymose, lachrymose, in tears, melancholic, hypped, hypochondriacal, bilious, jaundiced, atrabilious, saturnine, splenetic; lackadaisical.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Bilious

English words defined with "bilious": AntibillousBilious temperamentCholeric temperamentGall sicknessTabasheer. (references)
Specialty definitions using "bilious": HOMILETICSliverMALACHRA, MONOLENA CORDIFOLIA. (references)
Etymologies containing "bilious": Choler, Cholera. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Bilious

DomainTitle

Books

  • An Account of the Bilious Remitting Yellow Fever As It Appeared in the City of Philadelphia (Notable American Authors) (reference)

    (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Bilious

SubjectTopicQuote

Lexicography

Devil's Dictionary

LIVER, n. A large red organ thoughtfully provided by nature to be bilious with. The sentiments and emotions which every literary anatomist now knows to haunt the heart were anciently believed to infest the liver; and even Gascoygne, speaking of the emotional side of human nature, calls it "our hepaticall parte." It was at one time considered the seat of life; hence its name -- liver, the thing we live with. The liver is heaven's best gift to the goose; without it that bird would be unable to supply us with the Strasbourg pate.

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Bilious

"Bilious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Bilious" is used about 44 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)100%4451,500

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Bilious

Expressions using "bilious": atrabilious bilious dyspeptic liverish bilious attack bilious complaint Bilious temperament. Additional references.

Hypenated Usage

Ending with "bilious": anti-bilious.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Bilious

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

bilious

7
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Bilious

Language Translations for "bilious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Arabic 

  

‏مكبود, ‏مصفور, ‏صفراوي (biliary). (various references)

   

Czech

  

nevrlý (bad tempered, cantankerous, crabbed, crusty, gruff, grumpy, ill tempered, morose, petulant, querulous, snappy, sour, splenetic, sullen, surly), žluèníkový. (various references)

   

Danish

  

black water fever (bilious hemoglobinuric fever, blackwater fever, malarial hemoglobinuria, malarial hemoglobinuric fever), biliær diatese (bilious diathesis), svær hæmoglobinuri ved Plasmodium falcifiparum-attak (bilious hemoglobinuric fever, blackwater fever, malarial hemoglobinuria, malarial hemoglobinuric fever), sortvandsfeber (bilious hemoglobinuric fever, blackwater fever, malarial hemoglobinuria, malarial hemoglobinuric fever), kurbad for galdelidelser (spa for bilious affections), galdefeber (bilious fever, bilious fevers), galdediæt (mild diet for bilious affections), abdominalmigræne (bilious attacks). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

migraine abdominale (bilious attacks), kuur voor de galwegen (spa for bilious affections), galkoorts (bilious fever, bilious fevers), febris biliosa haemoglobinurica (bilious hemoglobinuric fever, blackwater fever, malarial hemoglobinuria, malarial hemoglobinuric fever), diathesis biliosa (bilious diathesis). (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

سوداءی مزاج , زرداب ریز, صفراوی (Xanthic), صفراءی مزاج . (various references)

   

Finnish

  

malarian hemoglobinuurinen keltakuume (bilious hemoglobinuric fever, blackwater fever, malarial hemoglobinuria, malarial hemoglobinuric fever). (various references)

   

French

  

bilieux, maussade, irritable. (various references)

   

German

  

giftig (baneful, contaminative, deleterious, noisome, poisonous, shrewish, toxic, toxical, venomous, venomously, viperous, virulent, virulently, vitriolic, waspish, waspishly, waspy), gallenkrank. (various references)

   

Greek 

  

πικρόχολοσ (morose, wry), χολερικόσ (choleric). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

nehéz természetű, kötekedő (cantankerous, disputatious, jocose, pugnacious, stroppy, testy, tetchy), ingerlékeny (be irritated, excitable, fractious, fretful, grumpy, highly strung, hot tempered, hot-tempered, ill tempered, inflammable, irascible, irritable, like a bear with a sore head, nervous, nettlesome, neurotic, peevish, peppery, perverse, petulant, prickly, techy, testy, tetchy), epével kapcsolatos, epés (acrimonious, caustic, jaundiced, liverish, venomous, virulent). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

muram (depressed, gloomy), lekas marah (choleric, irascible). (various references)

   

Italian

  

bilioso (livery), biliare (biliary), collerico (choleric, hot tempered, irascible, passionate, waspish). (various references)

   

Manx

  

jiooldagh (dissident, nauseating, nauseous, negative, revolting, sickly, squeamish), buighagh (jaundice). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

iliousbay

   

Portuguese

  

bilioso (jaundiced), irritável (crab, crabbed, crusty, edgy, fretful, grumpy, hot-blooded, huffish, huffy, irate, irritable, liver-coloured, liveried, livery, nervous, nervy, petulant, shirty, short tempered, techy, testy, tetchy, touchy, waspish). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

bilios, biliar (biliary), irascibil (cranky, fretful, huffish, irascible, irritable, magged, quick tempered, short tempered, sour, waspy), coleric (choleric, violent). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

желчный (acrimonious, adust, biliary, choleric, jaundiced, liverish, spleenful). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

žučni (biliary). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

bilioso. (various references)

   

Swedish

  

gallsjuk. (various references)

   

Thai

  

อยากอาเจียน. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

safra ile ilgili, huysuz (acrimonious, as cross as two sticks, bad tempered, cantankerous, churlish, crabbed, crabby, crank, cranky, cross-grained, crosspatch, crotchety, crusty, cursed, difficult, disagreeable, disgruntled, doggish, farouche, fractious, fretful, gnarled, grouchy, gruff, grumbling, grumpy, ill natured, ill tempered, ill-humored, ill-humoured, liverish, mean, Moody, out of humour, out of sorts, peeved, peevish, peppery, perverse, pettish, petulant, prickly, quarrelsome, querulous, ratty, rusty, shirty, snappish, spleenful, spleenish, splenetic, stroppy, sulky, surly, tetchy, thrawn, ugly, untoward, vicious, vixenish, waspish, wildcat, wrongheaded), aksi (adverse, awkward, bad tempered, bloody minded, cantankerous, contra, contra-, contrary, counter, crabbed, crabby, cross, cross-grained, crosspatch, crotchety, doggish, dour, evil, fractious, fretful, Froward, gruff, ill natured, ill tempered, ill-humored, ill-humoured, inverse, negatory, opposite, peevish, perverse, petulant, recalcitrant, refractory, reverse, shirty, snappish, snuffy, spleenful, spleenish, stroppy, stubborn, sullen, surly, tart, testy, unfavorable, unfavourable, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, untoward, wrongheaded), öd ile ilgili. (various references)

   

Ukranian 

  

огидний (abhorrent, abject, abominable, accursed, accurst, antipathetic, antipathetical, atrocious, beastly, brackish, brutal, carrion, damnable, damned, detestable, disgusting, dreadful, evil, execrable, filthy, ghoulish, grim, hanging, heinous, hideous, horrible, horrid, ill-favored, ill-favoured, loathful, loathsome, mawkish, mucky, nasty, nauseating, nauseous, nefandous, noisome, obnoxious, obscene, odious, offensive, pesky, poisonous, putrid, rank, repellent, repulsive, revolting, shocking, snotty, sordid, sour, stinking, underfoot, wicked), жовчний (acrimonious, adust, atrabilarious, atrabiliary, atrabilious, biliary, choleric, jaundiced, liverish), дратівливий (capernoited, crabbed, crabby, criss cross, exasperating, fretful, grumpy, hoity toity, impatient, irascible, irritable, petulant, short tempered, spleenful, tetchy, warm). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

bẳn tính (biliously), dễ cáu (biliously, fiery, irascible, nervy, passionate, quick-tempered, rambunctious, raspy, waspish). (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Bilious

Derivations

Words beginning with "bilious": biliously, biliousness, biliousnesses. (additional references)

Words ending with "bilious": atrabilious. (additional references)

Words containing "bilious": atrabiliousness, atrabiliousnesses. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Bilious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: bailemos, banlieues, Beeious, belinus, Belouis, belous, beloush, bibios, Biblique, bilaous, bilboes, bileous, bilio, bilions, biliosus, bilius, billious, billous, Bilou, bilous, bilulous, bolous, Bolsius, bullious, bullous, filioque, vilious. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Bilious"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "bilious" (pronounced bi"lēus)
5-i" l ē u spunctilious, supercilious.
4-l ē u salias, coleus, nucleus.
3-ē u sacrimonious, amphibious, aqueous, commodious, contemporaneous, copious, courteous, curious, deleterious, delirious, denarius, devious, dubious, envious, erroneous, extraneous, fastidious, felonious, furious, gaseous, glorious, gregarious, harmonious, hideous, hilarious, homogeneous, igneous, ignominious, illustrious, imperious, impervious, industrious, inglorious, injurious, insidious, instantaneous, invidious, laborious, lascivious, lugubrious, luxurious, melodious, meritorious, miscellaneous, mysterious, nefarious, notorious, oblivious, obsequious, obvious, odious, pancreas, penurious, percutaneous, precarious, previous, radius, sanctimonious, Sartorius, serious, simultaneous, spontaneous, spurious, studious, tedious, unceremonious, various, vicarious, victorious, vitreous.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Bilious

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "b-i-i-l-o-s-u"

-2 letters: boils, bolus, louis.

-3 letters: bios, boil, ibis, libs, lobs, obis, oils, silo, slob, slub, soil, soli, soul.

-4 letters: bio, bis, bos, bus, lib, lis, lob, obi, oil, sib, sob, sol, sou, sub.

-5 letters: bi, bo, is, li, lo, os, si, so, us.

 Words containing the letters "b-i-i-l-o-s-u"
 

+2 letters: biliously, oblivious.

 

+3 letters: boilersuit, libidinous, lubricious, solubilise, solubility, solubilize, subsoiling.

 

+4 letters: ambitiously, atrabilious, biliousness, biofoulings, boilersuits, ebullitions, jubilations, obliquities, obliviously, solubilised, solubilises, solubilized, solubilizes, sublimation.

 

+5 letters: absolutistic, absolutizing, amphibiously, automobilist, connubialism, copublishing, indissoluble, indissolubly, insalubrious, insolubility, insolubilize, libidinously, lubrications, lubriciously, nebulosities, neurofibrils, nonbuildings, outbuildings, publications, solubilising, solubilities, solubilizing, subeditorial, sublimations, tibiofibulas, tourbillions, tribulations, ubiquitously, volubilities.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Alternative Orthography: Bilious


Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

42 69 6C 69 6F 75 73

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

=

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

-...    ..    .-..    ..    ---    ..-    ...

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01000010 01101001 01101100 01101001 01101111 01110101 01110011

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#66 &#105 &#108 &#105 &#111 &#117 &#115

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0042 0069 006C 0069 006F 0075 0073

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

36757875818785

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Commercial
5. Quotations: Non-fiction
6. Usage Frequency
7. Expressions
8. Expressions: Internet
9. Translations: Modern
10. Derivations
11. Rhymes
12. Anagrams
13. Orthography
14. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.