despiteful

1. 1.

   showing malicious ill will and a desire to hurt; motivated by spite

   “a despiteful fiend”

   “a truly spiteful child”

   “a vindictive man will look for occasions for resentment”

   Synonymsspitefulvindictive

   Similarmalicious

Questions about despiteful

What does despiteful mean?

despiteful means "showing malicious ill will and a desire to hurt; motivated by spite".

How many syllables are in despiteful?

despiteful has 4 syllables: de-spi-te-ful. The stress falls on "spi".

What is another word for despiteful?

Close synonyms include spiteful, vindictive. 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 despiteful a common word?

despiteful is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.