malcontent
Americanadjective
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not satisfied or content with currently prevailing conditions or circumstances.
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dissatisfied with the existing government, administration, system, etc.
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of malcontent
Explanation
A malcontent is someone who's always dissatisfied. The guy at the restaurant who sends back the steak because it's too rare, then sends it back a second time complaining that it's not rare enough — he's a malcontent. Malcontent is often used to describe people who complain about more important things than steaks — things like social and political injustice. In Shakespeare's day, the Malcontent was a popular character type. Hamlet was a classic Malcontent. He believed that his uncle, King Claudius, murdered his father for power, and it made him angry that everyone else seemed to think that Claudius was a good person.
Vocabulary lists containing malcontent
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Take the Bad with the Good: Bene and Mal
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John McCain (1936 - 2018) Tribute List
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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.
Unable to recruit an impact hitter in free agency, the Giants turned their attention to the trade market and acquired a distressed asset in malcontent Rafael Devers.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 18, 2025
She’s the kind of malcontent who will, in all sincerity, accuse people of being “in cahoots.”
From New York Times • Feb. 29, 2024
But it did expose how the platform’s own algorithms or default settings played a part in spurring such malcontent.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 23, 2021
The year I turned 15 — a malcontent at odds with my stepmom — I returned to my dad and brother in Washington State.
From Salon • Jun. 19, 2021
As soon as you have revealed your intention to one malcontent, you give him the means to make himself content, since he can have everything he desires by revealing the plot.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
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.
