Standard Lemma guide

arrant

adj · name · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈæɹ(ə)nt/
  • General-American: ărʹənt
  • /ˈæɹənt/ without the Mary–marry–merry merger
  • /ˈɛɹənt/ Mary–marry–merry merger
  • General-American: nMmmm Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • homophone: errant (Mary–marry–merry merger)
  • CMU ARPABET: AE1 R AH0 N T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Complete; downright; utter.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: dated

Examples

  • an arrant knave arrant nonsense

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: out-and-out, unmitigated, abject, frightful, absolute, arrant, categoric, categorical, complete, consummate, decided, downright, full, full-blown, full-bore, full-on, mere, outright, perfect, precious, proper, pure, stark, rank, regular, right, root and branch, sheer, straight-out, thorough, thoroughgoing, total, unadulterated, unalloyed, unattenuated, uncompromising, unconditional, unfettered, unqualified, unreserved, unrestricted, utter, wholesale

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Very bad; despicable.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly, dated

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: abysmal, atrocious, awful, bad, chronic, coarse, corny, crap, crapalicious, crappy, crummy, deityforsaken, dire, disagreeable, dismal, dogshit, dreadful, fifth-rate, foul, fourth-rate, godawful, hellish, hideous, hopeless, horrendous, horrid, horrible, horrific, inadequate, incompetent, inelegant, intolerable, inferior, lackluster, loathsome, lousy, miserable, naff, negative, odious, ordinary, pathetic, peak, piss-poor, rotten, rubbish, shitawful, shitty, sixth-rate, sloppy, subpar, terrible, unfavorable, wack, abandoned, arrant, bad apple, bad seed, baleful, scurrilous, baneful, base, black-hearted, dark, deleterious, demonic, depraved, despicable, detrimental, devilish, diabolical, evil, evil-minded, facinorous, flagitious, harmful, heinous, ill-intentioned, ill-natured, immoral, incorrigible, iniquitous, iniquous, injurious, knavish, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, naughty, nefarious, niddering, nidering, niding, nithing, no-good, peccaminous, pernicious, reprehensible, reprobate, satanic, scathful, sinful, sinister, sordid, sullen, ungodly, unholy, vicious, vile, villainous, wicked, wrong

Antonyms: acceptable, agreeable, all right, amazing, as fine as Dick's hatband, awesome, beatific, bene, blissful, bodacious, bona, brilliant, celestial, commendable, cool, dandy as candy, decent, delightful, divine, enjoyable, excellent, exceptional, fabulous, fantastic, fine, goated, goloptious, good as wheat in the bin, gratifying, great, heavenlike, heavenly, incredible, lovely, magnificent, marvelous, neat, nice, not bad, outstanding, perfect, phenomenal, pleasant, pleasing, positive, rad, radical, right as rain, satisfying, solid, splendid, stellar, stupendous, super, superb, sweet, sweet as a nut, terrific, tubular, well, wicked, wonderful, wondrous

3

adj

Meaning 3

Obsolete form of errant (“roving around; wandering”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of, obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

name

Meaning 4

A surname.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

A variant of errant, from Middle English erraunt [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman erraunt, from Old French errant, the present participle of errer (“to walk (to); to wander (to); (figuratively) to travel, voyage”), and then: * from Vulgar Latin iterō (compare Late Latin itinerō, itineror (“to travel, voyage”)), from Latin iter (“a route (including a journey, trip; a course; a path; a road)”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h1ey- (“to go”); and * from Latin errāns (“straying, errant; wandering”), the present active participle of errō (“to rove, wander; to get lost, go astray; to err, wander from the truth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h1ers- (“to flow”). The original sense was sense 3 (“roving around, wandering”). Due to the word being used to describe disreputable persons who wandered about (for example, arrant knave and arrant thief), it came to be used as an intensifier (sense 1: “complete; downright; utter”) and to have a negative meaning (sense 2: “very bad; despicable”).