cantankerous

1. 1.

   stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate

   “unions...have never been as bloody-minded about demarcation as the shipbuilders”

   Synonymsbloody-minded

   Similarstubborn

   United Kingdom

2. 2.

   having a difficult and contrary disposition

   “a cantankerous and venomous-tongued old lady”

   Synonymscrotchetyornery

   Similarill-natured

Questions about cantankerous

What does cantankerous mean?

cantankerous means "stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in cantankerous?

cantankerous has 4 syllables: can-tan-ke-rous. The stress falls on "tan". In IPA it is /kænˈtæŋkɚəs/.

What is another word for cantankerous?

Close synonyms include bloody-minded, crotchety, ornery. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is cantankerous a common word?

cantankerous is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.