distemper

1. 1.

   any of various infectious viral diseases of animals

   Broaderanimal disease

   Narrowercanine distemperequine distemper
2. 2.

   an angry and disagreeable mood

   Synonymsill humorill humour

   Broadertemper

   Narrowermoodinessirritability
3. 3.

   paint made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder

   Broaderpaint
4. 4.

   a painting created with paint that is made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder

   Broaderpainting
5. 5.

   a method of painting in which the pigments are mixed with water and a binder; used for painting posters or murals or stage scenery

   Broaderpainting

1. 1.

   paint with distemper

   Broaderpaint

   art

Other forms of distemper

plural

distempers·

past tense

distemperred·

present participle

distemperring·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about distemper

What does distemper mean?

distemper means "any of various infectious viral diseases of animals". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in distemper?

distemper has 3 syllables: di-stem-per. The stress falls on "stem". In IPA it is /dɪˈstɛmpɚ/.

What is another word for distemper?

Close synonyms include ill humor, ill humour. 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 distemper a common word?

distemper 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.