adj · 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:/ˈɔːnəɹi/
Received-Pronunciation:/ˈɔːnɹi/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
General-American:/ˈɔɹnəɹi/
General-American:/ˈɔɹnɹi/
General-American:/ˈɔnɹi/
CMU ARPABET:AO1 R N ER0 IY0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
adj
Meaning 1
Disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with; cantankerous.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Appalachia, especially, informal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
adjective satellite
Meaning 4
having a difficult and contrary disposition- Dorothy Sayers
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
a cantankerous and venomous-tongued old lady
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: cantankerous, crotchety
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
A contracted or dialectal pronunciation of ordinary. Sense 3 (“ordinary, commonplace”) was the earliest sense; the meaning of the word then shifted to “inferior, plain-looking, unpleasant”—presumably due to ordinariness—and finally to sense 1 (“disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with”).
Across languages
Translations
17 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Arabic:
مُشَاكِس
(mušākis)
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Bulgarian:
инатлив
(inatliv)
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Bulgarian:
опак
(opak)
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Dutch:
mopperig
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Dutch:
nors
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Dutch:
zeurderig
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Finnish:
hankala
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
German:
grantig
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
German:
quengelig
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Japanese:
気難しい
(kimuzukashii)
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Polish:
uparty
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Polish:
drażliwy
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Serbo-Croatian:
зло̀чест
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Serbo-Croatian:
zlòčest
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Spanish:
intratable
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Spanish:
terco
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
Vietnamese:
bất kham
— disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with — see also cantankerous
