contumely

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
16
Words With Friends
20
Letters
9
Pronunciation
/ˈkɒnt͡ʃuːməli/ (UK)
See all 4 pronunciations
/ˈkɒnt͡ʃuːməli/ (UK) · /ˈkɒntjuːməli/ (UK) · /kɒnˈt͡ʃuːməli/ (UK) · /kɒnˈtjuːməli/ (UK)

Definition of contumely

1 sense · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)Offensive and abusive language or behaviour; scorn, insult.
    “For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time, / The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely, [...]”
    “Think of the insults, wrongs, and contumelies, / Ye bear from your proud lords—that your hard toil / Manures their fertile fields—you plow the earth, / You sow the corn, you reap the ripen'd harvest,— / They riot on the produce!— [...]”
    “She had been subjected to contumely and cross-questoning and ill-usage through the whole evening.”
    “Every one who has ever tried to set the affairs of his neighbors straight for them must be aware that those who pursue this course lay themselves open not only to ingratitude, but to positive contumely.”
    “Even the comfort of the bottle might conceivably fail him in this supreme crisis. At such an age nothing but a halter could cure the pangs of an unquenchable passion. And, besides, there was the wild exasperation aroused by the unjust aspersions and the contumely of the house, with the maddening impossibility to account for that mysterious thrashing, added to these simple and bitter sorrows.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Old French contumelie, from Latin contumēlia (“insult”), perhaps from com- + tumeō (“swell”).

Words you can make from contumely

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7-letter words

1 word

6-letter words

17 words

5-letter words

44 words

4-letter words

60 words

3-letter words

56 words

2-letter words

21 words

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