Synonyms for ornery
- adjective
Most common
All synonyms
Adjective
1. Crotchety — disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with; cantankerous
crotchety, cantankerous, obstreperous, ill-tempered, crabby, peevish, obnoxious, unsociable, intractable, contrary, cross-grained, owly, honery US, crabbit UK, cranky, irritable, stroppy slang UK IE
Definitions
- adj. 1
Disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with; cantankerous.
Related words
- Word family
- orneriness
- Other spellings
- ornary
Example sentences
- cantankerous Dmitri has an unlikable and cantankerous personality.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| ornery | rising | |
| cantankerous | rising | |
| crotchety | rising | |
| obstreperous | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- owly
- 6 letters
- cranky2, crabby2, honery
- 7 letters
- peevish2, stroppy, crabbit
- 8 letters
- contrary3
- 9 letters
- obnoxious3, irritable4, crotchety3
- 10 letters
- unsociable
- 11 letters
- intractable4
- 12 letters
- cantankerous4, obstreperous4
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (cranky2 = 2 syllables).