1
as in malice
the desire to cause pain for the satisfaction of doing harm
there was a natural nastiness about him that was evident from the time he was a small child
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in grossness
the quality or state of being obscene
the nastiness of the graffiti required that the school remove it immediately
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in dustiness
the state or quality of being dirty
the piles of rotting food in the kitchen were only one element in the apartment's general impression of appalling nastiness
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of nastiness
Meanwhile, the movie’s villains — played by recognizable faces, among them Heather Graham and Tom Felton — get pretty much zero by way of personality, or even superficial nastiness, making Asia’s reprisals a whole lot less entertaining.
—
Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 18 Mar. 2026
That sentimentality makes all this nastiness more satisfying.
—Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture, 18 Mar. 2026
On the right, the primary between incumbent Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is heading to a runoff, which likely promises nearly three months of nastiness.
—Elaine Godfrey, The Atlantic, 5 Mar. 2026
Released post-Columbine and heavily influenced by that tragedy, Scream 3 walks back from the gruesome violence and flashes of genuine nastiness that permeated the previous installments.
—Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Mar. 2026
Those guys have physicality, nastiness, speed, smarts.
—Chris Perkins, Sun Sentinel, 3 Feb. 2026
In-state offensive tackle Maxwell Riley is impressive changing direction and finishes plays with the type of nastiness that will endear him to fans in Columbus.
—Matthew Schmidt, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2025
Tracy’s dialogue, though absent the staccato non sequiturs of the director’s earlier work, has a bracing nastiness; every visual flourish and every menacing thrum of the score, by Jerskin Fendrix, escalates the intensity of Stone and Plemons’s bravura showdown.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2025
In this battle for reputation protection, no one’s a winner — including the audience who might just want to shower after all this nastiness and cruelty ends.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2025
Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 18 Mar. 2026
That sentimentality makes all this nastiness more satisfying.
—Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture, 18 Mar. 2026
On the right, the primary between incumbent Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is heading to a runoff, which likely promises nearly three months of nastiness.
—Elaine Godfrey, The Atlantic, 5 Mar. 2026
Released post-Columbine and heavily influenced by that tragedy, Scream 3 walks back from the gruesome violence and flashes of genuine nastiness that permeated the previous installments.
—Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Mar. 2026
Those guys have physicality, nastiness, speed, smarts.
—Chris Perkins, Sun Sentinel, 3 Feb. 2026
In-state offensive tackle Maxwell Riley is impressive changing direction and finishes plays with the type of nastiness that will endear him to fans in Columbus.
—Matthew Schmidt, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2025
Tracy’s dialogue, though absent the staccato non sequiturs of the director’s earlier work, has a bracing nastiness; every visual flourish and every menacing thrum of the score, by Jerskin Fendrix, escalates the intensity of Stone and Plemons’s bravura showdown.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2025
In this battle for reputation protection, no one’s a winner — including the audience who might just want to shower after all this nastiness and cruelty ends.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nastiness
Noun
-
Officers arrested Granger on Tuesday and charged him with rape, aggravated assault, malice murder, and two counts of felony murder.—
Dan Raby,
CBS News,
1 Apr. 2026
-
Peterson said there was no evidence of malice by Dance and that good faith is presumed for public officers.—
Charlotte Observer,
Charlotte Observer,
27 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
If an exclamation point only signified gore and grossness, this gothic rock opera would more than qualify.—
Rachel Simon,
Vulture,
6 Mar. 2026
-
The characters’ propensity for ugly faces, silliness and a bit of grossness too, stems from the portrayals of girlhood and young womanhood that appeal to them.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Los Angeles Times,
4 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
The woman who was bitten, later identified as 46-year-old Gabriela Bautista of Moorpark, died March 19 as a result of rattlesnake venom toxicity, the Ventura County medical examiner’s office told KTLA.—
Clara Harter,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar. 2026
-
Do not apply a tourniquet, slash the wound with a knife or attempt to suck out the venom, officials warned.—
Laylan Connelly,
Oc Register,
26 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
It is hoped that political ad campaigns would aim to lessen the meanness and divisiveness and vulgarity that have damaged our democracy.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
25 Feb. 2026
-
Former President Richard Nixon proved himself no slouch in the vulgarity department after reaching the White House in 1969.—
Bart Jansen,
USA Today,
22 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
An earnest, has-a-costume-for-everything kind of guy, Daub is allergic to the greige and the dinge.—
Sandra Upson,
Wired,
18 Jan. 2021
-
Dinges said the two crewmembers whose sleep remained steady -- even in the absence of conventional daylight -- were those who kept to a strict schedule and found other ways to control their biological clocks.—
Michael Nedelman,
CNN,
1 June 2017
Noun
-
What was disturbing were people who sped past a foot away from elderly people, shouting obscenities with faces twisted in hatred.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
1 Apr. 2026
-
Këkht Aräkh is not unique in his loneliness; the pain of being alone is as thematically central to DSBM as the hatred of Christianity.—
Sadie Sartini Garner,
Pitchfork,
31 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
By harnessing a particle accelerator to generate extraordinarily bright, coherent X-rays, the team was able to capture high-resolution internal anatomy in seconds, without the lengthy staining or other preprocessing steps often required for soft-tissue contrast in standard lab scanners.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
5 Mar. 2026
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Using chemical imaging techniques, researchers attempted to determine whether the staining was intentional or accidental.—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
The post-liberals stand for cruelty and inanity, but Brooks can’t admit to standing for much of anything at all.—
Becca Rothfeld,
New Yorker,
30 Mar. 2026
-
In an era of near continuous cruelty by the administration, the imprisonment of the boy and his father attracted massive media and political attention and eventually saw both released on February 1.—
Dominic Patten,
Deadline,
30 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Nastiness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nastiness. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.
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