Word.ws English Dictionary

compunctuous

compunctuous is the alternative spelling of compunctious.

Meaning of compunctious

Adjective

compunctious (comparative more compunctious, superlative most compunctious)

  1. Exhibiting compunctions, scruples, feelings of guilt.
    • Come you Spirits,
      That tend on mortall thoughts, vnſex me here,
      And fill me from the Crowne to the Toe, top-full
      Of direſt Crueltie: make thick my blood,
      Stop vp th’acceſſe, and paſſage to Remorſe,
      That no compunctious viſitings of Nature
      Shake my fell purpoſe, nor keepe peace betweene
      Th’effect...c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Forms of compunctuous

comparativemore compunctuous
superlativemost compunctuous

Questions about compunctuous

What is compunctuous the alternative spelling of?
Compunctuous is the alternative spelling of compunctious.

Words near compunctuous in the dictionary

  1. compunctious
  2. compunctiously
  3. compunctiousness
  4. compunctis
  5. compunctive
  6. compunctuous
  7. compunication
  8. compunications
  9. compunovel
  10. compunovels
  11. compuper

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compunctuous (page history and authors); compunctious (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “compunctuous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/compunctuous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.