ornery

C2+ Topic:Describing People

US /ˈɔrnəri/ UK /ˈɔːnəri/ See IPA manual

adj

Meanings

1

adj
bad-tempered, stubborn, and difficult to deal with

The ornery old mule refused to move no matter how hard they pulled.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · bad-tempered, stubborn, and... cantankerous irritable stubborn cranky grouchy contrarycrotchetymean

Opposites

agreeable amiable good-natured docile cheerful

Word family

Forms orneriest

Derived forms orneriness

Related forms ordinary

Etymology

A 19th-century American dialectal alteration of 'ordinary', originally meaning 'commonplace, of poor quality', later shifting to 'mean-tempered, stubborn'.

ordinarius la-med

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing People Word Formation & Derivatives

# ornery

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** ˈɔrnəri
**IPA (UK):** ˈɔːnəri

## Meanings
1. bad-tempered, stubborn, and difficult to deal with

## Examples
- The ornery old mule refused to move no matter how hard they pulled.

## Synonyms
- cantankerous
- irritable
- stubborn
- cranky
- grouchy
- contrary
- crotchety
- mean

## Antonyms
- agreeable
- amiable
- good-natured
- docile
- cheerful

## Derived Forms
- orneriness

## Related Forms
- ordinary

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: ordinarius

## Etymology
A 19th-century American dialectal alteration of 'ordinary', originally meaning 'commonplace, of poor quality', later shifting to 'mean-tempered, stubborn'.

## AI Etymology
Ornery is a 19th-century American dialectal alteration of 'ordinary', originally meaning 'commonplace, of poor quality', later shifting to 'mean-tempered, stubborn'. Important recorded forms include ordinarius (Latin). Morphologically, the ending or combining element turns the older base into the present English part of speech. The modern sense follows that older lexical line closely. In current use it covers bad-tempered, stubborn, and difficult to deal with. The wider family includes derived forms such as orneriness and related words such as ordinary.

## Topics
- Describing People
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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ornery

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