truculent

adjective

tru·​cu·​lent ˈtrə-kyə-lənt 

 also  ˈtrü-

1

: aggressively self-assertive : belligerent

2

: scathingly harsh : vitriolic

truculent criticism

3

: feeling or displaying ferocity : cruel, savage

4

: deadly, destructive

truculently adverb

Did you know?

Truculent derives from truculentus, a form of the Latin adjective trux, meaning "savage." It has been used in English since the 16th century to describe people or things that are cruel and ferocious, such as tyrannical leaders, and has also come to mean "deadly or destructive" (as in "a truculent disease"). In current use, however, it has lost much of its etymological fierceness. It now frequently serves to describe speech or writing that is notably harsh (as in "truculent criticism") or a person who is notably self-assertive and surly ("a truculent schoolboy"). Some usage commentators have criticized these extended uses because they do not match the savagery of the word's original sense, but they are well-established and perfectly standard.

Synonyms

• aggressive
• agonistic
• argumentative
• assaultive
• bellicose
• belligerent
• brawly
• chippy
• combative
• confrontational
• contentious
• discordant
• disputatious
• feisty
• gladiatorial
• militant
• pugnacious
• quarrelsome
• scrappy
• warlike

Examples of truculent in a Sentence

The hard work is to demonstrate exactly how the outsize Churchillian personality, so truculent, so impulsive, so often profoundly wrongheaded, became, in the dark spring of 1940, just what was needed for national survival. —Simon Schama, New York Review of Books, 28 Feb. 2002

Milton—in his prose an opinionated and truculent writer—remains a magnet for opinionated and truculent criticism. —Helen Vendler, New Republic, 30 July 2001

Within a year of publishing The Female Eunuch, she had debated Norman Mailer in a truculent disputation at Town Hall in New York, turned up on the cover of Life magazine as the "saucy feminist that even men like," and inspired innumerable women to stop wearing underpants. —Margaret Talbot, New Republic, 31 May 1999

… in the breast pocket of her police uniform she carried a small silver figurine of Durga, the Hindu goddess of shakti: power and strength. Defiant and truculent, she flashed a cheeky grin. —Mary Anne Weaver, Atlantic, November 1996

Challenged to a fight by a truculent layabout on the playing fields of St. James's primary school one Saturday, he had replied to his aggressor's taunts with his own war cries … —Wole Soyinka, Isara, 1989

die-hard fans who became truculent and violent after their team's loss

a theater critic who was notorious for his titanically truculent reviews

Recent Examples on the Web

Russia’s truculent and obstructionist foreign policy under President Vladimir Putin comes from a sense of having lost the Cold War in the 1980s and having suffered the consequences of the defeat in the 1990s. —Odd Arne Westad, Foreign Affairs, 27 Mar. 2018

Mexico City is so inept, so compromised by the cartels, and so truculent that joint military action seems a pipe dream. —Christian Schneider, National Review, 21 Dec. 2023

Chinese forces have adopted a truculent approach to prosecuting those claims. —Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner, 23 Oct. 2023

The truculent trio are all using the same tired bingo card of victimization politics that Donald Trump keeps in his breast pocket. —Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2023

The truculent and diffident teen-ager, all floppy hair and hormones, disruptively acts out his frustrations, while nonetheless becoming a good big brother to the two girls; meanwhile, his sparks of playful flirtation with Anne ignite an uncontrollable conflagration of desire. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2023

Over the course of the novel the reader will also meet Seamus, an impassioned and truculent MFA student in poetry, the dancers Fatima and Noah, and a closeted local older man, the violent, unpredictable and enigmatic Bert. —Hazlitt, 31 May 2023

He’d been deemed too truculent to mix with tourists. —Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023

My first column, published in June 2020, covered DeSantis’ truculent defense of his management of the COVID-19 pandemic in his state. —Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2023

Word History

Etymology

Latin truculentus, from truc-, trux savage; perhaps akin to Middle Irish trú doomed person

First Known Use

circa 1540, in the meaning defined at sense 3

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Kids Definition

truculent

adjective

tru·​cu·​lent ˈtrək-yə-lənt 

 also  ˈtrük-

: ready and willing to fight or quarrel

truculently adverb