EN

Synonyms for thorny

20 synonyms
2 antonyms
2 meanings

adjective

Most common

prickly spiky spiny bristly difficult knotty captious thorned

Synonyms by meaning

Adjective

1. Prickly — having thorns or spines

prickly, spiny, spiky, bristly, barbed, bristled, briery, burry, setose, barbellate, setaceous, spinous rare

2. Knotty

knotty, difficult, troublesome, hard, vexatious

Other

pricking, captious, thorned

Antonyms

imperturbable, thornless

All antonyms of thorny →

Definitions

adj. 1
Having thorns or spines.
adj. 2
Troublesome or vexatious.

Related words

Word family: thorniness
Phrases: thorny broom thorny devil thorny oyster

Example sentences

prickly A thistle is like a prickly person, lots of spines.
spiky The leaves of this ivy are very spiky.
spiny I'm allergic to Japanese spiny lobster.
difficult Explain to him the difficult situation you are in.
knotty Tom's cabin has knotty pine walls.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
thorny		rising
prickly		rising
spiky		rising
spiny		steady
bristly		steady
difficult		steady

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

4 letters: hard¹
5 letters: spiky², spiny², burry²
6 letters: barbed¹, knotty², briery, setose
7 letters: prickly², bristly, spinous, thorned
8 letters: bristled², pricking, captious
9 letters: difficult³, vexatious³, setaceous
10 letters: barbellate
11 letters: troublesome³

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (spiky² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: épineux
Italiano: spinoso
Español: espinoso