spiteful

/ˈspaɪtfəl/

Say it: SPYTE-full

adjective Showing or caused by a desire to hurt, annoy, or offend someone, often in a petty way.
Leaving a deliberately bad review for the restaurant was a spiteful thing to do.
🇪🇸 rencoroso

📖 Seen in the wild

And now I am living out my life in my corner, taunting myself with the spiteful and utterly futile consolation that it is even impossible for an intelligent man seriously to become anything, and only fools become something.
collected by @missha

✏️ spiteful in a sentence

The lawsuit was dismissed by the judge, who called it a spiteful and frivolous attempt to damage the company's reputation.
It was a spiteful rumor, started by someone who was clearly jealous of her success.
His spiteful comments about his ex-wife were unbecoming and cruel.
In a moment of spiteful rage, he keyed his neighbor's car over a parking dispute.
The character's spiteful nature made her one of the most memorable villains in the series.
She gave him a spiteful look after he took the last cookie.
Their divorce proceedings were notoriously spiteful, with each party trying to inflict maximum emotional pain on the other.

🔁 Synonyms & antonyms

malicious vindictive vengeful malevolent catty nasty mean petty

malicious · implies a deeper, more deliberate intent to cause serious harm.

vindictive · suggests a strong desire for revenge for a perceived wrong.

vengeful · focuses specifically on the act of getting even or retaliating.

malevolent · describes a more general, deep-seated evil or ill will, not just a petty desire to annoy.

Opposites: kind, benevolent, forgiving, charitable, compassionate

🌱 Where it comes from

Spiteful gets its bite from its ancestor, 'spite,' which is a shortened form of 'despite.' This traces back to the Latin word 'despectus,' meaning 'contempt' or 'looking down upon,' which perfectly captures the sense of acting out of a feeling of being scorned or wanting to scorn others.

🧩 How it's used

Common patterns:

spiteful commentspiteful remarkspiteful gossipa spiteful acta spiteful person

Spiteful carries a strong negative connotation, suggesting an action is motivated by petty malice rather than a grander evil. It often implies the person acting spitefully feels wronged or slighted, even if the offense is minor or imagined. While similar to 'malicious,' 'spiteful' often describes smaller, more personal acts of meanness, whereas 'malicious' can describe more serious and harmful intent.

Word family: spite, spitefully, spitefulness

💬 Quick answers

What does 'spiteful' mean?

Spiteful describes a person or action motivated by a desire to hurt, annoy, or offend someone else, often because of a petty grievance.

What is the difference between spiteful and malicious?

Spiteful usually suggests petty meanness or a desire to annoy, often in reaction to a perceived slight. Malicious implies a deeper, more deliberate intent to cause serious harm or suffering.

Is being spiteful a sign of jealousy?

Yes, spiteful behavior can often stem from jealousy or envy. A person might act spitefully to undermine someone they see as having an advantage over them.

Can an action be spiteful, or only a person?

Both can be described as spiteful. A person can have a spiteful nature, and their specific actions, comments, or gestures can also be called spiteful.

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