rancorous
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of rancorous
Explanation
The adjective rancorous comes in handy when you're describing someone's bitter grudge, like the attitude of your cousin who still won't speak to you after the April Fool's Day prank you played four years ago. A story can be rancorous, if it's full of resentment, and so can an argument, if it's particularly bitter and angry. The word rancorous can be traced back to the Latin word rancere, which means "to stink." This in turn led to rancorem, "bitterness or rancidness." When you speak to your arch enemy and your words are so angry and bitter that they almost stink, go ahead and describe them as rancorous.
Vocabulary lists containing rancorous
100 Top "SAT" Words
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The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 4
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Rancorous debate over how or whether to restrict the westward spread of the peculiar institution had created bitter divisions within the two major political parties and spawned a third, the Free Soil Party.
From Slate • Sep. 14, 2012
Rancorous confrontations among government, business, labor and a thousand contentious factions could erupt.
From Time Magazine Archive
Rancorous wranglings and debates pervaded Congress and the whole land.
From History of the United States, Volume 3 by Andrews, Elisha Benjamin
Rancorous, guttural cries burst out loudly on their ears, and a strange panting sound, the working of all these straining breasts.
From Typhoon by Conrad, Joseph
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
