Vexatious

Definition: Vexatious

Vexatious

Adjective

1. Causing irritation or annoyance; "tapping an annoying rhythm on his glass with his fork"; "aircraft noise is particularly bothersome near the airport"; "found it galling to have to ask permission"; "an irritating delay"; "nettlesome paperwork"; "a pesky mosquito"; "swarms of pestering gnats"; "a plaguey newfangled safety catch"; "a teasing and persistent thought annoyed him"; "a vexatious child"; "it is vexing to have to admit you are wrong".

Date "vexatious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Note: Vexatious \Vex*a"tious\, adjective. [See Vexation.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Vexatious

Synonyms: annoying (adj), bothersome (adj), galling (adj), irritating (adj), nettlesome (adj), pesky (adj), pestering (adj), pestiferous (adj), plaguey (adj), plaguy (adj), teasing (adj), vexing (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Pain	Irritating, provoking, stinging, annoying, aggravating, mortifying, galling; unaccommodating, invidious, vexatious; troublesome, tiresome, irksome, wearisome; plaguing, plaguy; awkward.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Vexatious

English words defined with "vexatious": annoying ♦ bothersome ♦ Frampoid ♦ galling ♦ Importunee, irritating ♦ Molestful ♦ nettlesome ♦ pesky, pestering, Pesterous, pestiferous, plaguey, plaguy ♦ teasing ♦ Vexatious suit, vexing. (references)

Specialty definitions using "vexatious": Apparel ♦ Fish-net ♦ Grasshopper ♦ Herbs, Hogs ♦ Insolvent ♦ Jaws ♦ Keel-hauling ♦ Neck ♦ Paradise. (references)

Etymologies containing "vexatious": Pesterous, Plaguy. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Are There Too Many Lawyers?: And Other Vexatious Questions (reference) Beauty's question and answer dictionary; a modern book of authoritative beauty culture suggestions, advice, treatments, formulas, diets, exercises and answers to the vexatious problems of hair, skin and figure beauty, confronting the modern woman (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Vexatious Progressions (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Date	Quotation
Treaty of Versailles	1919	The German Government undertakes not to institute any exceptional proceedings against these persons or their families nor to take any repressive or vexatious measures of any kind whatsoever against them on this account. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Emma	Austen, Jane	A thousand vexatious thoughts would recur.
Gulliver's Travels	Swift, Jonathan	Whether advocates and orators had liberty to plead in causes manifestly known to be unjust, vexatious, or oppressive.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Thomas Jefferson	1801-1809	On the Mobile, our commerce passing through that river continues to be obstructed by arbitrary duties and vexatious searches.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Vexatious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 98.18% of the time. "Vexatious" is used about 55 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	98.18%	54	46,184
Noun (proper)	1.82%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	55	N/A

Expressions using "vexatious": annoying galling chafing irritating nettlesome pesky pestiferous pestilent plaguy plaguey teasing vexatious vexing ♦ make vexatious ♦ vexatious suit ♦ vexatious woman. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "vexatious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		shqetësues (anxious, disorderly, disquieting, disturbing, hairy, perturbing, pesky, pestilent, plaguy, worrisome), irritues (exasperating, provoking, vexing), i bezdisshëm (annoying, bothersome, fussy, grating, haunting, intrusive, irksome, painful, pesky, troublous, trying). (various references)

Arabic		‏كيدي (malicious), ‏مقصود به الإغاظة, ‏مغيظ (angry, annoying, infuriating, irritated, provoking, vexed), ‏مزعج (aggravating, annoying, bore, bothering, bothersome, disagreeable, disquieting, disturber, disturbing, galling, grating, harsh, horrid, importunate, importune, intruder, irksome, irritating, mean, mischievous, offensive, pain in the neck, pestilential, plaguy, provoking, terrible, tiresome, troubled, troublesome, ugly, uncomfortable, unpleasant, upsetting, vexing, wicked, worrisome), ‏مضايق (annoying, bothersome, disagreeable, disturbing, irksome, irritating, tease, teaser, troublesome, vexing). (various references)

Bulgarian		създаващ неудобство, създаващ неприятности, свързан с неприятности, неоснователен (gratuitous, groundless, idle, insubstantial, reasonless, unfounded, ungrounded, vain), мъчителен (afflictive, agonizing, awkward, cruel, exasperating, excruciating, grievous, grinding, gruelling, harassing, harrowing, heavy, nerve racking, painful, sticky, tantalizing, torturous, traumatic, trying), противен (abhorrent, abominable, adverse, bastard, contrary, cross, disagreeable, foul, fulsome, ghastly, gross, horrid, loud, mucky, nameless, nasty, noisome, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, offensive, opposing, pestilential, rebarbative, repugnant, repulsive, scarlet, sickening, sickly, sorry, sour, squalid, swinish, ugly, unattractive, unfavorable, unfavourable, ungracious, ungrateful, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, vile, villainous), дразнещ (abrasive, dirty, exasperating, harassing, irritant, irritating, irritative, jarring, pestiferous, provocative, raspy, trying), досаден (aggravating, annoying, boring, bothersome, importunate, intrusive, irksome, irritating, lengthy, long winded, monotonous, mundane, obtrusive, officious, pain in the neck, painful, pesky, pestiferous, pestilent, plaguesome, plaguy, ponderous, prolix, provoking, tedious, tiresome, tiring, weariful, wearisome, weary). (various references)

Czech		trapný (awkward, bothersome, embarrassing, gauche, painful, wearing), nepříjemný (annoying, awkward, difficult, disagreeable, embarrassing, irksome, irritating, miserable, nasty, objectionable, sticky, troublesome, uncomfortable, uncongenial, uneasy, unpleasant, unsavory, untoward), muèivý (agonizing, excruciating, gnawing, torturing), mrzutý (annoying, awkward, bad tempered, chuff, crabbed, cranky, cross, crusty, dumpish, frumpish, glum, grouchy, joyless, Moody, out of temper, peevish, pettish, rugged, sulky, sullen, surly, testy, untoward). (various references)

Farsi		مضطرب (Panicky, Uneasy, Unruly), رنجش میز, شفته (Mortar), دل زار. (various references)

Finnish		tuskastuttava (irritating), kiusallinen (irksome, troublesome), harmillinen (annoying, provoking). (various references)

French		vexatoire, inquiet, ennuyeux, contrariant (vexing). (various references)

German		lästig (aggravating, annoying, bothersome, burdensome, burdensomely, cumbrous, importunate, importunately, incommodious, incommodiously, inconvenient, inconveniently, irksome, irritating, maddening, onerous, onerously, tiresome, troublesome, undesirable, vexing, worrisome). (various references)

Greek		ερεθιστικόσ (exciting, galling, inflammatory, irritant, irritative, provoking, stimulant, vexing), ενοχλητικόσ (annoying, bothersome, importunate, meddlesome, obtrusive, offensive, pesky, plaguy, troublesome, troublous, worrisome). (various references)

Hebrew		מר�'יז (aggravating, annoying, galling, tiresome), מציק (oppressive, oppressor, pest, plaguy, tormentor). (various references)

Hungarian		mérgesítõ, bosszantó (aggravating, annoying, disagreeable, disappointing, exasperating, galling, importunate, invidious, irking, irksome, nettlesome, pesky, pestilent, plaguesome, plaguy, provocative, trying, vexing). (various references)

Indonesian		mengganggu (annoyance, annoying, chicane, disturb, harry, irritate, mob, molest, offend, vex). (various references)

Italian		irritante (abrading, aggravating, annoying, grating, irritant, irritating, irritative, nervy, provoking, shocking). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		煩雑 (complex, complicated, confused, intricate, troublesome). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		は�"ざつ (complex, complicated, confused, intricate, troublesome), は�"さ (complicated, troublesome). (various references)

Manx		sneihagh (piqued, vexed), croshagh (cruciform). (various references)

Pig Latin		exatiousvay

Portuguese		que enfada, molesto (oneself), incómodo (ailment, annoyance, annoying, awkward, bumbling, cumbersome, cumbrous, discomfort, dreadful, heavy-laden, importune, incommodious, inconvenience, inconvertible, intrusive, left-hander, meddler, muff, nagging, nuisance, pesky, plaguy, ragtime, rush, shrill, thorn, tiresome, trouble, troublesome, uncomfortable, unhandy, untoward, unwelcome, vexing, worrisome). (various references)

Romanian		supãrãtor (annoying, bad, bothersome, disappointing, dreadful, grating, hurtful, importunate, inconvenient, inopportune, intrusively, invidious, irksome, irritating, irritatingly, jumpy, mischief-makering, niggling, obtrusively, painful, provoking, provokingly, tedious, troublesome, unfortunate, unlucky, unwelcome, vexing), ofensator (abusive, injurious, insulter, invidious, obloquious, offensive, offensively), iritant (aggravating, exasperating, galling, irritant, irritating, vexing), enervant (aggravating, annoying, irksome, irritating, irritatingly, jumpy, nerve racking, nervous), atingãtor (hurtful, moving, touching). (various references)

Russian		досадный (aggravating, annoying, maddening, pesky, plaguesome, provoking, sad). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		uznemirujući (disconcerting, disquieting, disturbing, harassing, upsetting, vexing), dosadan (acerbate, annoying, boring, bothersome, drear, dreary, grinding, humdrum, incommodious, long-spun, pain in the neck, pesky, poky, repetitious, slow, stodgy, stuffy, teasing, tedious, tiresome, undiverted). (various references)

Spanish		vejatorio. (various references)

Swedish		retsam (aggravating, annoying, irritating, provoking, quizzical, tantalising, tantalizing, teasing, tiresome, wicked). (various references)

Turkish		gücendirici, eziyetli (excruciating, grueling, gruelling, painful, tiring, vexing), can sıkıcı (aggravating, annoying, boring, bothersome, chippy, disagreeable, displeasing, embarrassing, painful, provoking, soul-destroying, soulless, sullen, tedious, unexeciting, worrisome, worrying), üzücü (afflictive, devouring, distressful, distressing, dolorous, grievous, harrowing, heartbreaking, heavy, painful, regrettable, rueful, sad, sorrowful, trying, vexing, woeful, worrisome, worrying). (various references)

Ukranian		неспокійний (anxious, bothersome, choppy, disquiet, incommodious, nervous, obstreperous, old womanish, qualmish, restive, troubled, troublous, tumultuous, uneasy, unquiet, unsettled, worrisome), прикрий (afflictive, aggravating, deplorable, lamentable, maddening, plaguy, provoking, regrettable, tragic). (various references)

Vietnamese		hay l� m bực mình. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "vexatious": vexatiously, vexatiousness, vexatiousnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Vexatious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Evantius, eximious, veratious, vexatiously, vexsatious, vextatious. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "vexatious" (pronounced veksā"shus)
4	-ā" sh u s	audacious, capacious, efficacious, fallacious, flirtatious, gracious, hellacious, herbaceous, loquacious, ostentatious, predaceous, salacious, sebaceous, spacious, tenacious, vivacious, voracious.
3	-sh u s	ambitious, anxious, atrocious, auspicious, capricious, cautious, conscientious, conscious, contentious, delicious, expeditious, facetious, factitious, ferocious, fictitious, fractious, inauspicious, infectious, injudicious, judicious, luscious, malicious, nauseous, noxious, nutritious, obnoxious, overambitious, pernicious, precious, precocious, pretentious, propitious, pugnacious, rambunctious, rapacious, repetitious, seditious, semiprecious, specious, subconscious, superstitious, surreptitious, suspicious, tendentious, unconscious, unpretentious, vicious.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-e-i-o-s-t-u-v-x"
	-2 letters: outvies.
	-3 letters: avoset, axites, exuvia, outvie, soviet, taxies.
	-4 letters: autos, aviso, axite, etuis, exist, exits, iotas, oaves, ostia, ovate, saute, sexto, sixte, soave, stave, stoae, stoai, stove, suave, suite, taxes, taxis, taxus, texas, toeas, touse, tuxes, uveas, vatus, vesta, vista, vitae, votes.
	-5 letters: aits, ates, auto, aves, avos, axes, axis, east, eats, eaux, etas, etui, exit, iota, oast, oats, oust, outs, oxes, sate, sati, save, seat, seta, sext, site, stoa, suet, suit, taos, taus, tavs, taxi, teas, ties, toea, toes, tuis, utas, uvea, vase, vast, vats, vatu, vaus, vest, veto, vets, vext, vies, visa, vise, vita, voes, vote.
	Words containing the letters "a-e-i-o-s-t-u-v-x"
	+2 letters: exuviations, vexatiously.
	+4 letters: vexatiousness.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.