1
as in disdainful
feeling or showing open dislike for someone or something regarded as undeserving of respect or concern
loutish tourists who are contemptuous of the ways and traditions of their host countries
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in slighting
intended to make a person or thing seem of little importance or value
contemptuous comments about the baseball team's pathetic showings
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of contemptuous
Trump didn’t go for broad appeal Fabrizio and his allies were openly contemptuous of efforts—in the primary and then the general—to reach more voters.
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Philip Elliott, TIME, 6 Dec. 2024
The curious tension between the president’s sympathetic rhetoric and his administration’s more hostile actions has increased the risk that a contemptuous and irritated Russia will poke back in eastern Europe.
—Eliot A. Cohen, Foreign Affairs, 20 Jan. 2018
Critics have affixed to his output any number of adjectives meant to communicate its basic darkness: acerbic, malicious, cruel, contemptuous.
—Brandon Sanchez, Vulture, 25 Oct. 2024
The rocket lifted away slowly, as though in contemptuous defiance of physics.
—David W. Brown, The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for contemptuous 
Philip Elliott, TIME, 6 Dec. 2024
The curious tension between the president’s sympathetic rhetoric and his administration’s more hostile actions has increased the risk that a contemptuous and irritated Russia will poke back in eastern Europe.
—Eliot A. Cohen, Foreign Affairs, 20 Jan. 2018
Critics have affixed to his output any number of adjectives meant to communicate its basic darkness: acerbic, malicious, cruel, contemptuous.
—Brandon Sanchez, Vulture, 25 Oct. 2024
The rocket lifted away slowly, as though in contemptuous defiance of physics.
—David W. Brown, The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for contemptuous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for contemptuous
Adjective
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Now, the norms for AI will emerge in a political and cultural environment that's hostile to regulation and disdainful of limits.Scott Rosenberg, Axios, 8 Jan. 2025
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By and large, though, in Lyman’s view, conservatives were the new gonzo journalists, the ones sending back authentic reports from high-drama situations, disdainful of institutions and politically correct messaging.Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Yet feeling out of place has, ironically, brought Escola even closer to their Mary Todd Lincoln, whose fear that a scornful world might keep her offstage gives the show an unexpected pathos.Julian Lucas, The New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2024
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The president has outlined a deeply misguided foreign policy vision that is distrustful of U.S. allies, scornful of international institutions, and indifferent, if not downright hostile, to the liberal international order that the United States has sustained for nearly eight decades.Eliot A. Cohen, Foreign Affairs, 11 Dec. 2018
Adjective
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This disastrous budget is even more insulting as Los Angeles County grapples with the devastation from four major fires.Bill Essayli, Orange County Register, 11 Jan. 2025
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Hinchcliffe, who is not Puerto Rican, was just plain cruel, insulting and dehumanizing.David Plazas, The Tennessean, 29 Oct. 2024
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Teamsters officials later complained that Harris, who would go on to lose all seven battleground states, was arrogant in her dealings with them.W. James Antle III, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 30 Dec. 2024
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Russia, Iran, and many other countries criticize U.S. military interventions as arrogant, ignorant of local context, and unable to fashion either stable regimes or effective security structures.Alexander Baunov, Foreign Affairs, 26 Dec. 2024
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While conceding that standard phishing methods, those that typically require threat actors to craft malicious emails that are delivered to a wide audience, are relatively easy for email platforms to detect and block, that’s not the case with this phishless attack.Davey Winder, Forbes, 11 Jan. 2025
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Alec Baldwin sues New Mexico, claiming malicious prosecution.Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 10 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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The upshot for all this is, for the first time ever, neither Russia nor Iran nor Hezbollah could defend this abhorrent regime in Syria.Hannah Parry, Newsweek, 9 Dec. 2024
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This abhorrent act deserves no place in our society.Louis Casiano, Fox News, 6 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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The 2023 Economic Report Of The President published in March of 2023 was relatively disparaging of cryptoassets and DLTs.Lawrence Wintermeyer, Forbes, 5 Dec. 2024
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Prior to appearing on Cunningham's show on Monday, Huggins made more disparaging remarks about Xavier.Emily DeLetter, The Enquirer, 10 May 2023
Adjective
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Shahana Goswami plays the lead role of a widow who lands the job of a cop due to life’s cruel twists.Sweta Kaushal, Forbes, 6 Jan. 2025
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In a cruel irony, revelers had gathered to welcome a new beginning.Matthew Continetti, National Review, 4 Jan. 2025
Thesaurus Entries Near contemptuous
Cite this Entry
“Contemptuous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/contemptuous. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.
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