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bothersome

UK/ˈbɒðəsəm/US/ˈbɑðɚsəm/
adjectiveB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,800 of 15,258leans spoken

Bothersome means causing small persistent annoyance. A bothersome cough, bothersome paperwork, rather bothersome.

The word is mild by design, and it is what people say when they do not want to make a fuss. It is used of things and of situations more than of people, since calling a person bothersome is unusually blunt.

Definitions of bothersome

  1. 1adjectivebothersomeCausing small persistent annoyance.B2+

    “A bothersome fly kept buzzing around my head all afternoon.”

bothersome is a quality.

Where it comes from

Bother plus -some, the ending meaning tending to cause, as in troublesome.

From bother + some.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

bothersome in the wild

  • Irritation also has non-clinical usages referring to bothersome physical or psychological pain or discomfort.

    Irritation

  • Due to the characteristics of the human auditory system, the same percentage of IMD is perceived as more bothersome when compared to the same amount of harmonic distortion.

    Intermodulation

  • Koehler wore shoes that were size 22, but he once stated that his most bothersome clothing problem was finding socks that fit him.

    Don Koehler

  • The name D. eres has been proposed for conservation in order to avoid bothersome name changes due to priority.

    Diaporthe eres

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.