spite
/spaɪt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.04 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Ill will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the desire to unjustifiably irritate, annoy, or thwart; a want to disturb or put out another; mild malice.
Uncountable
prep
Example Sentences
- "He was so filled with spite for his ex-wife, his brother was afraid of what he might do."
- "They did it just for spite."
- "This is the deadly spite that angers."
- "Out of spite, the human beings pretended not to believe that it was Snowball who had destroyed the windmill: they said that it had fallen down because the walls were too thin."
- "sex with older men was a way to both internalize my spite towards my mother and to find security in a father figure I lacked with my own father."
- ""The time is out of joint: O cursed spite.""
Etymology
From Middle English spit, a shortening of despit (whence despite), from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from Latin dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). Compare also North Frisian spīt, spīd (“regret”), Saterland Frisian Spiet (“regret, remorse”), West Frisian spyt (“regret”), Dutch spijt (“regret, remorse”), German Low German Spiet (“anger, regret, remorse”), German Spiet (“annoyance, vexation”), Swedish spit (“insult, outrage, annoyance”), Norwegian spit (“insult, outrage, annoyance”).