Word.ws English Dictionary

ornary

ornary is the alternative spelling of ornery.

Meaning of ornery

Adjective

ornery (comparative ornerier, superlative orneriest)

  1. (Appalachia, especially, informal) Disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with; cantankerous.
    • Seemingly here was an intruder who was violating custom. Moreover, the partners had come to look upon this exceedingly rich district as their exclusive property. And so their indignation was extreme. "The low-down, ornery cuss!" said Dobbs. "The nerve of him, crowdin' in on us, just as if there...1922 November 25, A[rthur] M[urray] Chisholm, “A Thousand a Plate. Chapter II.”, in Western Story Magazine, volume XXX, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Street & Smith, →OCLC, page 90, column 2
  2. (US, general, humorous, informal) Troublesome to deal with in a good way; mischievous, prankish, teasing.
  3. (obsolete) Ordinary, commonplace; hence, inferior, plain-looking, unpleasant.

Forms of ornary

comparativeornarier
superlativeornariest

Questions about ornary

What is ornary the alternative spelling of?
Ornary is the alternative spelling of ornery.

Words near ornary in the dictionary

  1. ornamentor
  2. ornamentors
  3. ornaments
  4. ornarier
  5. ornariest
  6. ornary
  7. ornate
  8. ornate aphid
  9. ornate aphids
  10. ornate hawk-eagle
  11. ornate horned toad

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ornary (page history and authors); ornery (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: “ornary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ornary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.