Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Spiteful |
SpitefulAdjective1. Showing malicious ill will and a desire to hurt; motivated by spite; "a despiteful fiend"; "a truly spiteful child"; "a vindictive man will look for occasions for resentment". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "spiteful" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1532. (references) |
Synonyms: SpitefulSynonyms: despiteful (adj), vindictive (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Hate | Invidious, spiteful; malicious. |
Malevolence | Malicious; malign, malignant; rancorous; despiteful, spiteful; mordacious, caustic, bitter, envenomed, acrimonious, virulent; unamiable, uncharitable; maleficent, venomous, grinding, galling. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Spiteful |
| English words defined with "spiteful": bitchery, bitchiness ♦ cat, cattiness ♦ despiteful, despitefully, Dispiteous ♦ Malicious prosecution ♦ nastiness ♦ spite, spitefully, spitefulness, Spitous ♦ To stir up a hornet's nest ♦ unmalicious ♦ vindictive ♦ with spite. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "spiteful": Hate ♦ Ink ♦ Kiss ♦ WASPISH ♦ Zoilos. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "spiteful": Despiteful. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Honey, you're being so spiteful and vindictive (Will & Grace; writing credit: Evan Weinstein) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Spiteful" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Spiteful" is used about 133 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 Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 133 | 27,614 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| 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. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
spiteful | 18 |
spiteful supermarine | 7 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "spiteful"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | keqdashës (carping, ill disposed, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant), inatçi (cross, rancorous), i lig (bad, basilisk, catty, despiteful, diabolic, diabolical, evil, evil-minded, felon, godless, iniquitous, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean, nasty, nefarious, perverse, sinister, vicious, wicked). (various references) | |
Arabic | لاذع (acerb, acid, acrid, acrimonious, biting, bitter, bitterly, burning, caustic, cutting, harsh, hot, keen, mordant, nippy, peppery, piquant, poignant, pungent, rough, salty, sarcastic, savory, savoury, scathing, scorching, sharp, sharp tongued, smarting, snappish, snappy, spicy, stinging, tart, waspish), حقود (hateful, ill-wisher, malicious, malignant, rancorous, revengeful, venomous), حاقد (malevolent, scurrilous, sullen, vengeful), شرير (bad, black, black-hearted, dark, devil, diabolic, diabolical, evil, ill, iniquitous, maleficent, malicious, malign, nasty, naughty, rascally, reprobate, rogue, roguish, rude, sinister, unholy, vicious, wicked). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | злостен (malignant, poisonous, vicious, virulent), злобен (bitchy, blackhearted, catty, despiteful, dirty, envenomed, evil-minded, ill natured, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malignant, nasty, rancorous, sinister, spleenful, squint eyed, venomous, vicious, virulent). (various references) | |
Czech | zlomyslný (bitchy, catty, despiteful, malicious, malignant, mischievous, nasty, unfriendly, unkind, vicious), potmìšilý (ill natured, sneaky, wily), nevraživý, jízlivý (acerbic, blistering, catty, scathing, sneering, snide, unkind, waspish, wry), škodolibý (gleeful). (various references) | |
Farsi | معاند (Defiant, Dissenter, Dissident, Nonconformist), کینه توز (Dispiteous, Implacable, Vengeful, Venomous). (various references) | |
Finnish | vahingoniloinen (malicious), pahanilkinen (malicious, wicked). (various references) | |
French | venimeux, rancunier, malveillant, méchant, fielleux. (various references) | |
German | gehässig (bitchy, catty, invidious, mean, nastily, nasty, spitefully, venomous, vicious), boshaft (catty, fiendish, impish, invidious, malevolent, malicious, maliciously, mischievous, mischievously, nasty, poisonous, shrewish, spitefully, vicious, wicked). (various references) | |
Greek | κακόσ (awful, bad, evil, ill, maleficent, mischievous, naughty, sinistrous, vicious, wicked), κακεντρεχήσ (malicious), κακεντρεχής (malignant), μοχθηρόσ (malicious, nasty, rancorous, sinister, vicious, virulent), μοχθηρός (malevolent, malicious), πεισματάρησ (bull-headed, contrary, cussed, dogged, mulish, obstinate, ornery, stubborn, wilful), εμπαθής (malicious, passionate). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ק טר י (annoying, catty, provocative, quarrelsome, teasing, vexing), רע לב (ill natured), וקמ י (avenging, vengeful). (various references) | |
Hungarian | rosszindulatú (bad light, bitchy, censorious, despiteful, envious, evil-minded, hostile, ill disposed, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mischievous, rancorous, snide), gonosz (bad, black, black-hearted, catty, evil, fell, felon, felonious, ill, iniquitous, maleficent, malicious, malignant, mischievous, nefarious, rancorous, shabby, shrewd, ungodly, vicious, viperous, wicked). (various references) | |
Italian | maligno (bad tempered, black-hearted, gloating, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, snide, venomous), dispettoso (catty), cattivo (airy-fairy, bad, evil, foul, frolic, frolicsome, ill, ill natured, mad, malicious, miserable, nasty, naughty, perverse, petulant, poor, unkind, vicious, wicked). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 執念深い (persistent, tenacious, vengeful, vindictive), 底意地悪い (malicious), 憎気 (hateful). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | そ"いじわるい (malicious), しゅうね"ぶかい (persistent, tenacious, vengeful, vindictive), にく' (hateful). (various references) | |
Manx | myskidagh (implacable, malevolent, malicious, rancorous, resentful, vindictive), goanlyssagh (malevolent, malicious, malignant, rancorous, revengeful, spiteful person, vicious, vicious spiteful, vindictive), gallvergagh (ferociously angry, sarcastic), elgyssagh (fierce, vindictive). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | itefulspay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | vingativo (avengeful, rancorous, resentful, revengeful, vengeful, vicious, vindictive, wicked), rancoroso (rancorous, resentful, venomous, vicious, vindictive, wicked), maldoso (malicious, mischievous, naughty, venomous), malévolo (candle-wick, cattish, maleficent, nasty, wicked). (various references) | |
Romanian | rãzbunãtor (avengeful, avenger, malicious, retributive, revengeful, vengeful, vindictive), rãutãcios (catty, elfish, jeering, jeeringly, malicious, malignant, mischievous, vicious, wicked), plin de urã, pizmaş (covetous, envier, envious, hostile, malevolent, malicious, yellow), maliţios (invidious, maliciously, spitefully), duşmãnos (averse, hostile, hostilely, inimical, opponent), ciudos (angry, despiteful, furious). (various references) | |
Russian | злобный (bitchy, blackhearted, catty, despiteful, envenomed, evil-minded, ill natured, ill-natured, malicious, malign, nasty, ornery, rancorous, spleenful, spleenish, venomous, viperous, virulent). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | prkosan (defiant, truculent), pakostan (ill, ill disposed, invidious, malevolent, malicious, mean, meanspirited, vicious). (various references) | |
Spanish | malévolo (bitchy, ill natured, malevolent, malicious, malign, nasty). (various references) | |
Swedish | skadeglad, hätsk (bitter, hateful, ill natured, invidious, rancorous). (various references) | |
Turkish | nispetçi, kindar (grudging, malevolent, revengeful, vindictive), kinci (grudger, grudging, rancorous, resentful, retributive, revengeful, vengeful, vindictive), cadaloz (battle axe, bitch, grimalkin, hag, harridan, old cat, scold, shrew, shrewish, termagant, virago, vixen). (various references) | |
Turkmen | hyrsyz (evil, malicious). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | уїдливий (acid, acrid, acrimonious, arrowy, barbed, biting, carping, cattish, caustic, epigrammatic, exceptive, fault finding, mordacious, mordant, pointed, smart, waspish, waspy), зловтішний, злобний (nasty, nocuous, rancorous, sardonian, sardonic, sardonical, spleenful, wicked). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | đầy hằn thù; hằn học. (various references) | |
Welsh | sbeitlyd. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | lividi, livido, maligna, maligne, maligni, malignis, maligno, malignorum, malignum, malignus, malivolam, malivolo. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "spiteful": spitefuller, spitefullest, spitefully, spitefulness, spitefulnesses. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "spiteful": despiteful. (additional references) | |
Words containing "spiteful": despitefully, despitefulness, despitefulnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Spiteful" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pipeful, shitawful. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "spiteful" (pronounced spī"tful) |
| 5 | -ī" t f u l | delightful, frightful, rightful. |
| 4 | -t f u l | artful, boastful, deceitful, disrespectful, distasteful, distrustful, doubtful, eventful, fateful, fistful, fitful, forgetful, fretful, fruitful, grateful, hateful, hurtful, tactful, tasteful, insightful, lustful, mistrustful, neglectful, regretful, resentful, respectful, restful, thoughtful, uneventful, ungrateful, wasteful, wistful, zestful. |
| 3 | -f u l | apocryphal, awful, baffle, baleful, bashful, beautiful, blissful, bountiful, careful, cheerful, colorful, disdainful, disgraceful, doleful, dreadful, duffel, dutiful, faithful, falafel, fanciful, fearful, flavorful, forceful, gainful, gleeful, graceful, harmful, healthful, helpful, hopeful, houseful, sorrowful, soulful, stifle, stressful, successful, suspenseful, tearful, thankful, joyful, kerfuffle, lawful, masterful, meaningful, merciful, mindful, mournful, muffle, needful, painful, panful, peaceful, pitiful, playful, plentiful, powerful, prayerful, purposeful, raffle, remorseful, reshuffle, resourceful, riffle, rifle, rueful, ruffle, scornful, scuffle, shameful, shuffle, sinful, skillful, trifle, triumphal, truffle, truthful, tuneful, unfaithful, unhealthful, unhelpful, unlawful, unsuccessful, untruthful, useful, vengeful, waffle, watchful, willful, wishful, woeful, wonderful, worshipful, wrongful, youthful. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-f-i-l-p-s-t-u" | |
-1 letter: stipule, sulfite, uplifts. | |
-2 letters: filets, fliest, flites, flutes, fusile, futile, itself, letups, pileus, plutei, stifle, stipel, tulips, uplift. | |
-3 letters: etuis, feist, felts, fetus, files, filet, flies, flips, flite, flits, flues, flute, fuels, fusel, fusil, ileus, islet, istle, lefts, letup, lieus, lifts, lutes, pelfs, pelts, piles, pilus, piste, plies, pules, pulis, pulse, setup, situp. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-f-i-l-p-s-t-u" | |
+1 letter: uplifters. | |
+2 letters: despiteful, spitefully. | |
+3 letters: painfullest, pitcherfuls, pitchersful, pitifullest, pitifulness, prestigeful, spitefuller, superfluity. | |
+4 letters: despitefully, spitefullest, spitefulness, stupefyingly. | |
+5 letters: disrespectful, pestiferously, pitifulnesses, plentifulness, superfluidity, superfluities. | |
| 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. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
