Standard Lemma guide

splenetic

adj · noun · 5 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.

  • US: /spləˈnɛtɪk/
  • Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɛtɪk

1

adj

Meaning 1

Bad-tempered, irritable, peevish, spiteful, habitually angry.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: agitated, angry, annoyed, apoplectic, bad-tempered, berserk, big mad, blood-boiling, boiling mad, butthurt, cheesed off, choleric, cranky, cross, enraged, fit to be tied, frustrated, fuming, furibund, furious, fury, glimflashy, grim, hopping mad, ill-natured, incensed, infuriated, irate, ireful, ired, irritated, little mad, livid, mad, mad as a bear with a sore head, miffed, offended, pathetic, pissed off, p'd off, pissed, pissy, raging, ready to be tied, screwfaced, seething, spitting chips, splenetic, sore, steaming, up on one's ear, upset, vexed, waxy, wode, wrathful, wroth, zowerswopped, atrabilious, bilious, bitchy, brainish, cantankerous, carnaptious, crabbit, crabby, crotchety, dyspeptic, edgy, fantoddish, fiery, fractious, fretful, grumpy, grotchy, grouchy, hissy, hot-livered, hot-tempered, hotheaded, huffy, humpy, 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, stressy, surly, temperamental, testy, tetchy, tetty, thin-skinned, thorny, touchy, twitchy, umbrageous, volatile, waspish

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Related to the spleen.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A person affected with spleen.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective

Meaning 4

of or relating to the spleen

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: splenic, lienal

Antonyms: none provided

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

very irritable

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • bristly exchanges between the White House and the press
  • he became prickly and spiteful
  • witty and waspish about his colleagues

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bristly, prickly, waspish

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

The adjective form of spleen, borrowed from Late Latin spleneticus, from Latin splen. Anger was traditionally believed to originate from the fluids of the spleen.

Across languages

Translations

14 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: злъчен (zlǎčen) — bad-tempered
  • Bulgarian: язвителен (jazvitelen) — bad-tempered
  • Finnish: sapekas — bad-tempered
  • French: splénétique — bad-tempered
  • Irish: splíonach — bad-tempered
  • Spanish: irritable — bad-tempered
  • Bulgarian: на далака (na dalaka) — related to the spleen
  • Esperanto: liena — related to the spleen
  • Finnish: sappi- — related to the spleen
  • French: splénique — related to the spleen
  • German: splenisch — related to the spleen
  • German: Milz- — related to the spleen
  • Spanish: esplénico — related to the spleen
  • Volapük: splenik — related to the spleen