Synonyms for insulting
- adjective
Most common
All synonyms
Adjective
1. Rude
rude, abusive, contemptuous, offensive, disdainful, vituperative, insolent, scurrilous, scornful, foul, calumnious, disrespectful, contumelious formal dated
Other
insultory rare
Definitions
- adj. 1
Containing insult, or having the intention of insulting.
He received an insulting letter.
Choose the right word
Insulting denotes a personal attack, either in words or actions, indicative either of scorn or triumph.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Example sentences
- offensive The US staged a land offensive on Iraq from Kuwait.
- abusive Sami was abusive to Layla verbally and physically.
- contemptuous Tom seems to be contemptuous of ordinary people.
- disdainful Dan isn't an arrogant and disdainful guy.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| insulting | rising | |
| offensive | steady | |
| abusive | rising | |
| contemptuous | steady | |
| disdainful | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- rude1, foul1
- 7 letters
- abusive3
- 8 letters
- insolent3, scornful2
- 9 letters
- offensive3, insultory
- 10 letters
- disdainful3, scurrilous3, calumnious
- 12 letters
- contemptuous4, vituperative5, contumelious
- 13 letters
- disrespectful4
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (abusive3 = 3 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- insultant
- Italiano
- insultante