fractious
Americanadjective
-
irritable
-
unruly
Usage
Fractious is sometimes wrongly used where factious is meant: this factious (not fractious ) dispute has split the party still further
Other Word Forms
- fractiously adverb
- fractiousness noun
- unfractious adjective
- unfractiously adverb
- unfractiousness noun
Etymology
Origin of fractious
First recorded in 1715–25; fracti(on) + -ous
Explanation
If you're prone to picking fights, making snarky comments, and being frustratingly stubborn, you're fractious. And odds are you're not invited to too many parties. Someone who is fractious is cranky, rebellious and inclined to cause problems. Tempers and children are commonly described as such. In To Kill A Mockingbird, author Harper Lee uses the word to describe the trouble-making Calpurnia: "She had always been too hard on me, she had at last seen the error of her fractious ways, she was sorry and too stubborn to say so."
Vocabulary lists containing fractious
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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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.
Through sheer force of will, and despite several attempts on his life, President de Gaulle held his fractious country together and established an independent foreign policy, much to the annoyance of the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026
Bruce Meyer, the current executive director of the players association, puts the union’s fractious history with the owners at the center of his communications with players.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2026
If it sounds polarised, ill-tempered and fractious, that is because it is.
From BBC • Mar. 16, 2026
He had a fractious relationship with New Delhi -- after taking office in 2024, he chose China for his first trip abroad, rather than the customary visit to India.
From Barron's • Feb. 26, 2026
The fractious archaeological community embraced his ideas with rare unanimity; they rapidly became the standard model for the peopling of the Americas.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
