cantankerous

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.