Standard Lemma guide

petulant

adj · 3 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.

  • /ˈpɛt͡ʃʊlənt/
  • /ˈpɛtjʊlənt/
  • /ˈpɛt͡ʃələnt/
  • /ˈpɛtjələnt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P EH1 CH AH0 L AH0 N T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Childishly irritable.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • Lack of sleep is causing Dave's recent petulant behavior.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bad-tempered, crabby, grouchy, huffy, atrabilious, bilious, bitchy, brainish, cantankerous, carnaptious, choleric, crabbit, cranky, crotchety, dyspeptic, edgy, fantoddish, fiery, fractious, fretful, grumpy, grotchy, hissy, hot-livered, hot-tempered, hotheaded, humpy, ill-natured, ill-tempered, irascible, irritable, liverish, out of sorts, ornery (chiefly US)}, peevish, pettish, petulant, prickly, quick-tempered, querulous, raspy, ratty, short-tempered, snappish, snappy, snippety, snippish, snippy, snitchy, splenetic, stressy, surly, temperamental, testy, tetchy, tetty, thin-skinned, thorny, touchy, twitchy, umbrageous, volatile, waspish

Antonyms: easygoing

2

adj

Meaning 2

Forward; pert; insolent; wanton.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: brazen, flippant, impertinent, audacious, bold, get wise, bold-faced, bold as brass, brassy, brazen-faced, cheeky, chutzpadik, cocket, cute, dicacious, facey, familiar, flip, forward, fresh, impious, impudent, insolent, irreverent, malapert, pert, petulant, sassy, saucy

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

easily irritated or annoyed

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • an incorrigibly fractious young man
  • not the least nettlesome of his countrymen

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cranky, fractious, irritable, nettlesome, peevish, peckish, pettish, scratchy, testy, tetchy, techy

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle French, from Latin petulāns, akin to petō (“to ask for”).

Across languages

Translations

55 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: խռովկան (xṙovkan) — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Armenian: նեղացկոտ (neġacʻkot) — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Bulgarian: сприхав (sprihav) — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Bulgarian: раздразнителен (razdraznitelen) — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Chinese Mandarin: 易怒 (yì nù) — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Czech: popudlivý — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Dutch: luimig — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Dutch: prikkelbaar — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Dutch: zenuwachtig — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Esperanto: petola — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Faroese: bitutur — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Finnish: kiukutteleva — easily irritated or annoyed
  • French: irascible — easily irritated or annoyed
  • French: pétulant — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Galician: farfallán — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Galician: chufón — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Galician: botado — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Galician: bamborriñeiro — easily irritated or annoyed
  • German: leicht reizbar — easily irritated or annoyed
  • German: gereizt — easily irritated or annoyed
  • German: nervös — easily irritated or annoyed
  • German: launisch — easily irritated or annoyed
  • German: launenhaft — easily irritated or annoyed
  • German: verdrießlich — easily irritated or annoyed
  • German: borstig — easily irritated or annoyed
  • German: bockig — easily irritated or annoyed
  • German: zickig — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Haitian Creole: agresif — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Hungarian: sértődékeny — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Hungarian: ingerlékeny — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Hungarian: nyűgös — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Italian: petulante — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Latin: petulans — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Macedonian: раздразлив (razdrazliv) — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Macedonian: разгневен (razgneven) — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Māori: whanewhane — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Māori: ngutu hāwere — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Norwegian Bokmål: amper — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hårsår — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Norwegian Bokmål: lunefull — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Norwegian Bokmål: pirrelig — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: amper — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: hårsår — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: lunefull — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: pirrelig — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Plautdietsch: prunsch — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Polish: drażliwy — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Russian: раздражи́тельный (razdražítelʹnyj) — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Russian: вздорный (vzdornyj) — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Slovak: nevrlý — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Spanish: petulante — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Spanish: mostrar petulancia — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Spanish: ponerse tonto — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Ottoman Turkish: تتیز (titiz) — easily irritated or annoyed
  • Ottoman Turkish: خرچین (hırçın) — easily irritated or annoyed