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scornful

UK/ˈskɔːnfəl/US/ˈskɔɹnfəl/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,269 of 15,258neutral

Scornful means showing that you think something is beneath consideration. Not arguing with it — dismissing it.

It takes of. The word describes looks, laughs and remarks, so a scornful laugh and a scornful dismissal are both standard. It sits close to contemptuous, and scorn is perhaps a shade more openly expressed than contempt. Pouring scorn on something is the fixed phrase for public ridicule. The adverb scornfully is common in dialogue tags.

Definitions of scornful

  1. 1adjectivescornfulShowing open contempt for something.C1

    “She was scornful of every excuse he offered.”

Where it comes from

  1. Middle English

    scornful

  2. English, today

    scornful

From Middle English scornful. Middle English scornful; equivalent to scorn + ful.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 24 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

scornful in the wild

  • An insult is an expression, statement, or behavior that is often deliberately disrespectful, offensive, scornful, or derogatory towards an individual or a group.

    Insult

  • The Prawn Cocktail Offensive was the scornful name given to the British Labour Party's success in winning trust and backing from the United Kingdom's financial sector.

    Prawn Cocktail Offensive

  • A sardonic person might participate in funny yet scornful mocking, or express uncomfortable truth in a clever way.

    Sardonicism

  • An insult is an expression, statement, or behavior, which is disrespectful or scornful.

    Insult (disambiguation)

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.