as in irritating
causing annoyance
for some air travelers, the most rankling aspect of the security measures seems to be the restrictions regarding carry-on baggage
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in raging
to be excited or emotionally stirred up with anger
that kind of rude treatment from a young person makes me rankle
Synonyms & Similar Words
2
as in angering
to make angry
it rankles me when some schools can't even afford paper and pencils for the students
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rankling
Adjective
-
Of all the teams to surpass Texas Tech this century, TCU’s evolution would be the most painful, or at least irritating.—
Mac Engel,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
15 Jan. 2025 -
Traveling can be frustrating and irritating, which may lead at times to aggressive behavior.—
Sydney Borchers,
Fox News,
13 Jan. 2025
Verb
-
Then the truck flipped over, sending the workers into the raging water.—
Travis Loller,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Dec. 2024
-
Here is the list of fighters that gained immortality as a result of this raging inferno.—
Interesting Engineering,
Interesting Engineering,
20 Dec. 2024
Verb
-
Around 10 individuals ran onto the court waving Palestinian flags, angering hundreds of attendees from the French Jewish community cheering for the Israeli team.—
Bradford Betz,
Fox News,
19 Dec. 2024
-
With some true detective work, Flueger quickly discovers that pigeons are trying to claim squatter rights a bit too close higher up, angering the furry felines.—
Demetrius Patterson,
The Hollywood Reporter,
3 Oct. 2024
Adjective
-
This change is particularly annoying since the multiplayer structure hasn't been notably improved since payment was required.—
PCMAG,
PCMAG,
15 Jan. 2025
-
This is a book that is charming, intelligent and occasionally annoying.—
Jennifer Szalai,
New York Times,
15 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
Her hunt for that first Grand Slam title, which had once seemed easy to find, got frustrating.—
Matthew Futterman,
The Athletic,
22 Jan. 2025
-
Reinhart has been facing this frustrating situation privately, but decided to share it publicly now for a very personal reason: At the time of this interview, her grandmother had recently been diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer.—
Julia Sullivan,
SELF,
22 Jan. 2025
Verb
-
The company built a retail and residential complex around the county’s Coconut Grove Metrorail station, and Martin also is pitching an incinerator site in western Miami-Dade as an alternative to the Levine Cava plan to rebuild the trash-burning facility in Doral.—
Douglas Hanks,
Miami Herald,
4 Jan. 2025
-
Detroit Free Press On a Friday afternoon in April 14 years ago, a Christian pastor known for burning Qurans stood in front of Dearborn City Hall along Michigan Avenue railing against Islam.—
Niraj Warikoo,
Detroit Free Press,
3 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
Nakamura, the father, was interned along with his Japanese American family during WWII, a shameful and disturbing period in 20th-century American history that has never been fully acknowledged or dealt with on a national level.—
Murtada Elfadl,
Variety,
27 Jan. 2025
-
This is a dark and disturbing script that, circa 1996, would have been better handled by Darren Aronofsky or David Fincher.—
Brian Smolensky and James Mercadante,
EW.com,
27 Jan. 2025
Verb
-
Coursing through all of these elements is a seething anger at authoritarianism.—
Glenn Whipp,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Dec. 2024
-
Cox and his team were brought in by a handful of wealthy Colorado ranch owners who were still seething over the ballot measure to introduce wolves that passed in 2020 by less than one percent.—
Chris Dorsey,
Forbes,
18 Dec. 2024
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Thesaurus Entries Near rankling
Cite this Entry
“Rankling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rankling. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share