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

Obnoxious

Definition: Obnoxious

Obnoxious

Adjective

1. Causing disapproval or protest; "a vulgar and objectionable person".

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

Date "obnoxious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

 

Synonyms: Obnoxious

Synonyms: objectionable (adj), unpleasant (adj). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Obnoxious

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

Hate

Obnoxious, hateful, odious, abominable, repulsive, offensive, shocking; disgusting; (disagreeable); reprehensible.

Inexpedience

Unlucky, sinister; obnoxious; untoward, disastrous.

Liability

Adjective: liable, subject; in danger; open to, exposed to, obnoxious to; answerable; unexempt from; apt to; dependent on; incident to.

Pain

Adjective: causing pain, hurting; Verb: hurtful; (bad); painful; dolorific, dolorous; unpleasant; unpleasing, displeasing; disagreeable, unpalatable, bitter, distasteful; uninviting; unwelcome; undesirable, undesired; obnoxious; unacceptable, unpopular, thankless.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Obnoxious

English words defined with "obnoxious": babbler, benweedchatterbox, chattererLeague offensive and defensiveobjectionably, obnoxiously, offensivelypig, praterragweed, ragwortSenecio jacobaea, slob, sloven, slovenly person, spouter, Subjectedtansy ragwortvarmint, verminWhite caps. (references)
Specialty definitions using "obnoxious": asbestos cork awardB Flats, Bell-the-Cat, brushing shotFire-engine, flamer, FODJ. J, Jedwood JusticeMiser, Moving the Previous QuestionPall-bearerRibbon DodgeSANITARY ENGINEER. (references)

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Modern Usage: Obnoxious

DomainUsage

Screenplays

You two are the most obnoxious people that I ever met. (The Cosby Show; writing credit: Bob Shayne)

The most obnoxious f g ring (The Osbournes; writing credit: Liliana Abud; Jaime García Estrada)

Clever

Aggressive: Obnoxious. (references; author: unknown)

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

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Commercial Usage: Obnoxious

DomainTitle

Books

  • How to Share the Good News Without Being Obnoxious About It (reference)

  • Once I Was Obnoxious... and You'll Never Guess What Happened (You'll Never Guess What Happened Series/Includes Paper Doll) (reference)

  • The Obnoxious Jerks (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Theater & Movies

  

Music

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

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Photo Album: Obnoxious

ThumbnailDescription & Credit

Giant salvinia is a fast-growing fern that can clog ponds and lakes. Forming mats up to 2 feet thick, the plant gobbles up oxygen and blocks sunlight needed by other water dwellers. A tiny weevil, Cyrtobagous salviniae, is under study as a biocontrol for this obnoxious invader. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer..

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

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Sounds Captioned with "Obnoxious".

PlayCaption
Hot rod; muscle car; engine; rev; revving; 8-cylinder; fast; drag racing; car racing; brash; brassy; brazen; chintzy; coarse; crass; crude; flamboyant; flashy; garish; gaudy; glaring; lurid; meretricious; obnoxious; obtrusive; ostentatious; raucous; rude.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Obnoxious

AuthorQuotation

Ulysses S. Grant

I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent enforcement.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Speeches: Obnoxious

SpeakerTermPhrase(s)

James Madison

1809-1817Because attempts to enforce by legal sanctions, acts obnoxious to go great a proportion of Citizens, tend to enervate the laws in general, and to slacken the bands of Society.

Andrew Jackson

1829-1837The law, after this friendly explanation, passed with the obnoxious amendment, supported by the King's ministers, and was finally approved by the King.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Obnoxious

"Obnoxious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 98.63% of the time. "Obnoxious" is used about 146 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)98.63%14426,339
Noun (proper)1.37%2245,945
                    Total100.00%146N/A

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

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Expression: Obnoxious

Expression using "obnoxious": obnoxious to. Additional references.

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

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Obnoxious

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

obnoxious

26

obnoxious stuff

10

avril lavigne obnoxious

3

obnoxious t shirt

2

neighbor obnoxious

2

obnoxious students.com

2

boom obnoxious

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Obnoxious

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

Albanian

  

shumë i pakëndshëm (horrid), i padurueshëm (impossible, insufferable, insupportable, revolting, terrible, unbearable, unendurable), i neveritshëm (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, beastly, contemptible, damnable, damned, despicable, detestable, disgustful, disgusting, execrable, fulsome, ghoulish, heinous, hideous, loathful, loathsome, nauseating, noisome, odious, putrid, rank, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, rotten, sickening, sickly, slimy, sordid, squalid, unclean, unsavory, unsavoury). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏مكروه (abhorrent, adversity, detestable, discomfort, hateful, misfortune, odious, ugly), ‏عفن (corrupt, decay, decompose, frowsty, fusty, mildew, mold, mould, musty, putrefaction, putrefy, putrid, rank, reek, rotten, septic, spoilt, stale, taint), ‏ذميم (dispraised, noxious, vilified), ‏شنيع (atrocious, awful, crying, enormous, foul, ghastly, ghoulish, gruesome, heinous, hideous, monstrous, nefarious, outrageous, ugly), ‏بغيض (abominable, accursed, antipathetic, beastly, blasted, cursed, damned, detestable, distasteful, dreadful, forbidding, frightful, hateful, horrid, impossible, nasty, noxious, objectionable, odious, out of favor, out of favour, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, sticky, ungrateful, unhappy, unlikely, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unwelcome, villainous). (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

омразен (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, detestable, hateful, odious), противен (abhorrent, abominable, adverse, bastard, contrary, cross, disagreeable, foul, fulsome, ghastly, gross, horrid, loud, mucky, nameless, nasty, noisome, objectionable, odious, offensive, opposing, pestilential, rebarbative, repugnant, repulsive, scarlet, sickening, sickly, sorry, sour, squalid, swinish, ugly, unattractive, unfavorable, unfavourable, ungracious, ungrateful, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, vexatious, vile, villainous), извънредно неприятен. (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

讨厌 (Nasty, Nuisance). (various references)

   

Czech

  

odporný (abhorrent, abominable, bad, detestable, disgustful, disgusting, distasteful, foul, hateful, horrible, loathsome, nasty, nauseous, noisome, odious, offensive, queasy, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, sickening, stinking, unsavory, verminous, vile), závadný, urážlivý (abusive, contumelious, huffish, huffy, hurtful, injurious, invective, offensive, outrageous, petulant, shocking, touchy), protivný (aggravating, beastly, bitchy, disagreeable, hateful, horrid, irksome, lousy, molestful, nasty, noisome, odious), škodlivý (bad, damaging, derogatory, detrimental, harmful, injurious, malign, nocent, noisome, noxious, pernicious, prejudicial). (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

منفور (Cussed, Hateful, Loathloth, Outcast, Scurvy, Ungracious, Unpopular), مضر (Adverse, Bad, Baneful, Derogatory, Evil, Foe, Harmful, Inadvisable, Inimical, Injurious, Insanitary, Nocuous, Noxious, Pernicious, Unwholesome), نفرت انگیز (Detestable, Execrable, Gruesome, Horrid, Invidious, Loathsome, Odious), گزنداور, زیان بخش . (various references)

   

Finnish

  

vastenmielinen (disagreeable, displeasing, repugnant, repulsive, unpleasant). (various references)

   

French

  

odieux, insupportable (objectionable), infect, détestable. (various references)

   

German

  

anstößig (disgusting, indecent, lewd, nasty, objectionable, obnoxiously, offensive, offensively, shocking, unsavory, unsavoury). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

μισητόσ (abhorrent, abominable, detestable, hated, hateful, invidious, odious), απεχθήσ (abhorrent, abject, abominable, loathful, loathsome, odious, repugnant, revolting), αποκρουστικόσ (abhorrent, forbidding, odious, repellent, repulsive, revolting). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

מ'ו " (disgraceful, foul, fulsome, improper, indecent, obscene, odious, opprobrious, shameful), תעב (abhorred, abominable, detestable, foul, gruesome, hateful, loathsome, odious, vile). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

kellemetlen (awkward, bad, bothersome, churlish, crabby, cumbersome, cumbrous, disagreeable, disappointing, displeasing, effing, evil, galling, grotty, ill-favored, ill-favoured, inconvenient, irksome, jarring, nasty, noisome, objectionable, pesky, pestilent, pestilential, plaguy, poisonous, to be in a hole, trying, unaffected, ungracious, unlovely, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, untoward), ellenszenves (antipathetic, antipathetical, antipathic, disagreeable, distasteful, effing, repugnant, repulsive, sodding, unlovely). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

sengak (piercing in smell, pungent). (various references)

   

Italian

  

odioso (accursed, cursed, detestable, hated, hateful, heinous, hideous, horrid, invidious, odious, unpleasant), sgradevole (bad, bleak, disagreeable, dismal, distasteful, dreary, ghastly, grisly, horrible, invidious, nasty, objectionable, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unsightly), ripugnante (abhorrent, disgusting, dislikable, distasteful, hideous, loathful, loathsome, offensive, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, unsavory, unsavoury), detestabile (abhorrent, accursed, detestable). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

祭り込む (to place an obnoxious person in an out-of-the-way post to be rid of him or her), おとぎ話 (bedpan, chamber pot, coweringly, fairy tale, female transvestite, flattery, generally obnoxious middle-aged woman, good luck charm, hesitantly, screw, sexual intercourse, vagina, virgin). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

おばたりあ" (generally obnoxious middle-aged woman), まつり"む (to place an obnoxious person in an out-of-the-way post to be rid of him or her). (various references)

   

Korean 

  

불쾌한 (Nasty, unpleasant). (various references)

   

Manx

  

graney (bad-looking, dirty, dirty as trick, execrable, gruesome, hideous, ill-favoured, lousy, nasty, objectionable, revolting, rotten, ugly, uncomely). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

obnoxiousay.(various references)

   

Portuguese

  

ofensivo (aggressive, hurtful, injurious, objectionable, offensive, rude, shocking, wrongful), obnóxio, desagradável (bad, beastly, bleak, brackish, crabbed, desagreeable, disagreeable, disgusting, dismal, displeasing, distasteful, dreadful, dreary, fearful, forbidding, foul, frightful, ghastly, grisly, horrible, invidious, nasty, objectionable, offensive, repellent, seamy, ugly, uncomfortable, uncongenial, undesirable, ungrateful, unlovely, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unthankful, untoward, unwelcome, unwished), chocante (abrupt, amazing, filthy, harsh, jarring, knockdown, odious, offensive, outrageous, revolting, shocking, sickening, startling). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

respingãtor pentru, respingãtor (abhorrent, awful, awfully, disagreeable, dreadful, dreadfully, forbidding, foul, fulsome, hideous, infamous, obscene, odious, odiousness, offensive, pestilent, rebarbative, repellent, repulsive, repulsively, scurvy, unprepossessing, verminous), neplãcut (acrid, annoying, bad, beastly, bothersome, brackish, dark, disagreeable, dreadful, forbidding, hard, horrid, ill-favored, ill-favoured, nasty, niggling, objectionable, obnoxiously, offensive, offensively, provoking, snuffy, sorry, ugly, unlucky, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unwelcome), insuportabil (aggravating, beyond endurance, exquisite, fierce, impossible, insufferable, insupportable, keen, obnoxiously, oppressive, outrageous, past endurance, trying, unbearable, unbearably, unendurable). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

противный (antipathetic, antipathetical, cross, disagreeable, disgustful, disgusting, displeasing, distasteful, horrible, horrid, loathful, loathsome, mucky, nasty, poisonous, unlovely). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

odvratan (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, beastly, brackish, disgustful, disgusting, execrable, hideous, loathsome, mucky, nasty, nauseating, obscene, odious, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, sickening, snotty, sordid, uncongenial, unlovely, vile), mrzak (abhorrent, detestable, hateful, heinous, loath, loathful, loth, odious). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

odioso (abhorrent, abject, abominable, accursed, accurst, despiteful, detestable, hated, hateful, invidious, odious, poisonous), molesto (aggravating, annoying, bothering, bothersome, ill at ease, importunate, inconvenient, irksome, irritating, objectionable, obtrusive, plaguy, provoking, pushing, pushy, troublesome, trying, unwelcome, vexatious, vexed), malsonante (objectionably, shocking), detestable (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, awful, damnable, detestable, hateful, horrible, loathful, loathsome, odious, terrible, vile), desagradable (bloody minded, disagreeable, displeasing, distasteful, nasty, objectionable, ornery, painful, unpleasant, unpleasing, unsavory, unsavoury). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

vidrig (disgustful, disgusting, distasteful, filthy, foul, horrid, loathful, loathsome, nasty, obscene, offensive, vile), anstötlig (aggravating, invidious, objectionable, offensive, scandalous). (various references)

   

Thai

  

น่ารังเกียจ (clingin, foul, hateable, icky-poo, loathsome, lousy, noisome, obscene, odious, putrid). (various references)

   

Turkish

  

uygunsuz (derogatory, illegitimate, impolitic, improper, inapposite, inappropriate, incongruous, inconvenient, incorrect, indecent, indecorous, indelicate, ineligible, inexpedient, infelicitous, malapropos, near the knuckle, unbecoming, unbefitting, unbeseeming, uncalled for, unchristian, uncomely, unhandsome, unpropitious, unseemly, unsuitable, untoward, wrong), pis (augean, black, dingy, dirty, dungy, effing, filthy, foul, frowzy, goatish, grimy, grubby, impure, mangy, messy, miasmal, miasmatic, miry, mucky, nasty, obscene, offensive, scruffy, scummy, slimy, sordid, squalid, unclean, uncleanly), kötü (bad, badly, black, chintzy, devilish, dread, dreadfull, evil, feeble, fierce, grotty, harmful, haunted, hedge, hellish, horrible, horrid, ill, indifferent, iniquitous, lousy, malign, mis-, miscreant, miserable, nasty, nefarious, off, offensive, poor, poorly, portentous, purple, rough, seamy, shady, sinister, sticky, stinking, ugly, unhallowed, unrighteous, vicious, wicked, worse, wrongful), iğrenç (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, cloying, crying, damn, damned, detestable, dirty, disgusting, distasteful, dread, dreadfull, execrable, filthy, foul, frightful, ghoulish, god-awful, grievous, hatable, hateable, hateful, heinous, hideous, horrible, horrid, infernal, loathsome, lousy, mangy, mawkish, nasty, nauseous, noisome, odious, offensive, putrid, rancid, rank, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, scummy, shocking, sick, sickening, sickly, slimy, squirmy, stinking, ugly, vile, villainous, yuck), çirkin (beastly, eldritch, flagrant, foul, god-awful, heinous, hideous, homely, horrid, ill-favored, ill-favoured, inelegant, misshapen, nasty, nefarious, plain, seamy, shapeless, ugly, unattractive, uncomely, uncouth, unhandsome, unlovely, unpleasant, unsightly). (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

караний (blameworthy, nocent, punishable), огидний (abhorrent, abject, abominable, accursed, accurst, antipathetic, antipathetical, atrocious, beastly, bilious, 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, obscene, odious, offensive, pesky, poisonous, putrid, rank, repellent, repulsive, revolting, shocking, snotty, sordid, sour, stinking, underfoot, wicked), нестерпний (chronic, cruel, excruciating, impassive, impossible, insufferable, insupportable, intolerable, painful, pink, racking, repugnant, unbearable), непри"мний (acerbic, bad, beastly, brackish, disagreeable, displeased, displeasing, distasteful, grisly, hack, importune, nasty, objectionable, offensive, painful, plaguy, poor, provoking, snooty, tedious, ugly, unfavorable, unfavourable, ungracious, ungrateful, unlovable, unloveable, unlovely, unpleasant, unwelcome), підвладний, противний (abominable, offensive, unsavoury, wretched), доступний (accessible, approachable, available, negotiable, obtainable, open, pervious, procurable). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

khó chịu (accursed, accurst, annoyed, beastly, colour, devil, disagreeable, displeasing, distasteful, incommodious, nasty, noisome, obtrusive, plaguesome, queer, tiresome, unacceptable, unpleasant, unpleasing, vile, vinegar), đáng ghét (accursed, accurst, anathematic, anathematical, cursed, cursedly, loathly, loathsome, unpleasant). (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Obnoxious

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

obnoxiosus. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Obnoxious

Derivations

Words beginning with "obnoxious": obnoxiously, obnoxiousness, obnoxiousnesses. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Obnoxious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: abnoxious, obnaxious, obnexious, obnocious, obnoctious, obnotious, obnoxcious, obnoxios, obnoxioua, obnoxiuos, obnoxius, obnoxous, obnozious, obnxious, ubnoxious. (additional references)

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

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Rhyming with "Obnoxious"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "obnoxious" (pronounced ÄbnÄ"kshus)
6-n Ä" k sh u snoxious.
4-k sh u sanxious, fractious, infectious, rambunctious.
3-sh u sambitious, atrocious, audacious, auspicious, capacious, capricious, cautious, conscientious, conscious, contentious, delicious, efficacious, expeditious, facetious, factitious, fallacious, ferocious, fictitious, flirtatious, gracious, hellacious, herbaceous, inauspicious, injudicious, judicious, loquacious, luscious, malicious, nauseous, nutritious, ostentatious, overambitious, pernicious, precious, precocious, predaceous, pretentious, propitious, pugnacious, rapacious, repetitious, salacious, sebaceous, seditious, semiprecious, spacious, specious, subconscious, superstitious, surreptitious, suspicious, tenacious, tendentious, unconscious, unpretentious, vexatious, vicious, vivacious, voracious.

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

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Anagrams: Obnoxious

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "b-i-n-o-o-o-s-u-x"

-2 letters: niobous, noxious.

-4 letters: bison, bonus, boons, boson, bosun, unbox.

-5 letters: bins, bios, boon, boos, buns, ions, nibs, nobs, nous, nubs, obis, onus, snib, snob, snub, soon.

 Words containing the letters "b-i-n-o-o-o-s-u-x"
 

+2 letters: obnoxiously.

 

+4 letters: obnoxiousness.

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

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Photo Album
7. Sounds
8. Quotations: Familiar
9. Quotations: Speeches
10. Usage Frequency
11. Expressions
12. Expressions: Internet
13. Translations: Modern
14. Translations: Ancient
15. Derivations
16. Rhymes
17. Anagrams
18. Bibliography


  

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