as in cruel
feeling or showing a desire to cause harm or pain
a mean-spirited person He wrote a mean-spirited book review.
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for mean-spirited
Adjective
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The heat has become so unbearable in Japan that weather officials in April announced a new term for days when maximum temperatures exceed 104 degrees — kokushobi, meaning harsh or cruel heat, according to the Japan Times.
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For thousands of Venezuelans, however, the lack of definitive answers has become one of the tragedy’s cruelest consequences.
Adjective
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This vicious machine chewed him up and spit him out in predictable fashion.
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The mood changed a bit when Tab Ramos took a vicious elbow to the side of his head and fractured his skull.
Adjective
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Social media sites used for hateful comments Pumphrey made threatening posts on the social media platform YouTube and other social media sites, according to the guilty plea.
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Political podcasters such as Tucker Carlson peddle conspiracies and lies, and there seems to be little consequence for hateful rhetoric.
Adjective
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Including some rather nasty, big corpo bullies who enlist specialist teams to hunt down clues, and other players, too.
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Betty Kovacs, the eldest daughter of comedian Ernie Kovacs who with her sister Kippie and stepmother, actress-singer Edie Adams, was at the center of a nasty custody battle that kept Hollywood riveted in 1962, has died.
Adjective
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During the first game, the Fever’s Caitlin Clark and the Mercury’s DeWanna Bonner got tangled up, said some unkind things, and five players wound up with technical fouls in the aftermath.
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The market is now doing what project-finance investors are meant to do, testing the cash flow and asking who is left holding the risk if the day of refinancing is unkind.
Adjective
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And, for all the theater of the hearing and Wyper’s expressions of sympathy with aldermen, the Stonepeak executive didn’t offer any meaningful concessions to make this obnoxious meter deal more palatable for Chicagoans.
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The song’s spacious production lets its piercing saxophone riffs dissipate into silence, only for borderline obnoxious horns to swirl them back into rhythm.
Adjective
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Everyone has an acid tongue and brims with spiteful resentment.
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This is an essential part of our checks and balances system to prevent a corrupt president from dragging our nation into costly, dangerous, or spiteful wars.
Adjective
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The man didn’t catch Serena’s contemptuous expression, however, too busy peeling bills from a money clip and pressing them into his date’s hand.
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The fantasy of transforming a cold or contemptuous man through the sheer force of one’s love has caused real harm, and the critique of it is warranted.
Cite this Entry
“Mean-spirited.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mean-spirited. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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