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vengeful

vengeful

37 6.9
Wanting to harm someone because they hurt you
  • adjective
  • /ˈvɛnʤfəl/
translation icon : vengativo
  • The guilty cannot hide any longer, nor escape the vengeful wrath of the cosmic order!
  • feel vengeful
  • a vengeful character
  • vengeful gods

Do I even want to know the bitter, grumpy, vengeful person you've become it?

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Examples

  • From that, you see what I could've done to you if I were a vengeful man.

  • After the unjust treatment, he became a vengeful figure, seeking to right the wrongs done to him.

  • I mean, we all are subject to to feeling, you know, vengeful at some point.

  • No need to get carried away, showing me your vengeful side.

  • I just wondered what my father would do, knowing how bitter he was and how vengeful he could be.

  • Imagine believing in a god that is so vengeful, so full of uncontrolled anger.

    Blog text (9)
  • In Shakespeare, some characters are vengeful, sad, or suicidal as a result of their epiphanies.

  • He's a vengeful spirit.

  • We must renounce the philosophy of punishment, the obsolete, vengeful penal attitude.

    Academic text (1997)
  • Their behavior was so perpetually vain and vengeful that the mortals constantly, unknowingly provoked them to misuse their power.

    Fiction book (1997)

Synonyms

vindictive
vsvengeful
46 7.9

Wanting strongly to hurt someone who hurt you

is similar but does not necessarily imply the desire is unreasonable
spiteful
vsvengeful
23 5.1

Wanting to hurt or upset someone on purpose

is about harming someone specifically as retaliation for an injury not mere annoyance
out for revenge
vsvengeful
3 7.1

Wanting to punish someone for a wrong they did to you

is more a general trait of wanting to harm after being wronged
revengeful
vsvengeful
2 5.8

Wanting to hurt someone who hurt you

expresses a stronger active desire to harm someone in return
despiteful
vsvengeful
  • Archaic
9.9

Wanting to hurt or upset other people

focuses on harming someone as a response to a wrong rather than general malice

Antonyms

64 3.1

Ready to stop feeling angry after someone hurts you

54 3.3

Kind and willing to forgive someone who is suffering or has done wrong

How Vengeful

implacable
  • Formal
9 8.6
vengeful
37 6.9
spiteful
23 5.1
bitter
360 2.5
resentful
36 5.4

Surface Forms

vengeful positive

Morphology

vengeful = vengeance (transparent) = venge + ful

The meaning 'full of vengeance' is a straightforward combination of the root (related to 'vengeance') and the productive suffix '-ful', so learners who know 'vengeance' or 'revenge' can infer the meaning.

Etymology

The word vengeful comes from old words for 'revenge' and is related to the English word revenge and the Latin root vindicare, which meant 'to claim' or 'to punish'. So, a vengeful person wants to 'get back' at someone for a wrong.