obnoxious
/əbˈnɑkʃəs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.38 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Extremely offensive or unpleasant; very annoying, contemptible, or odious.
adj
Unjustly disagreeable, argumentative or objectionable; brazenly rude.
adj
Under the authority or power of someone; subject, subordinate; hence, deferential, submissive, subservient.
Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "Throwing stones at the bus is another example of your obnoxious behaviour."
- "The disturbance had commenced, like those of England, in the refusal of the parliament to sanction an obnoxious tax; but here all resemblance ended."
- "For my part, thumb-marks [in books] I find very obnoxious—far more so than the spoiling of the binding."
- "Someone jolted my arm and the contents of my glass spilled onto an immaculate white dress. I felt obnoxious."
- "I would have been nine or ten when my mother chased me up a thorn tree with a ceremonial hippo-hide whip. What my crime was, I forget. My mother was, and remains, a woman of exceptional forbearance. I must have done something so obnoxious as to beggar belief."
- "He felt obnoxious and knew perfectly well that he would have no explanation whatsoever had anyone discovered him, but she looked so alluring, so untroubled, so fortunate, that his only concern was the terrible crack the shutter made...quiet as it was."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁óp(i) Proto-Italic *op Latin ob Latin ob- Proto-Indo-European *neḱ-der. Latin noxa Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin obnoxi(us) Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ŏ̄dsos? Old Latin -ōssus Latin -ōsus Latin obnoxiōsuslbor. English obnoxious Learned borrowing from Latin obnoxiōsus.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əbˈnɑkʃəs/
- British English: /əbˈnɒkʃəs/