spite
/spaɪt/
spite noun: ill will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the desire to unjustifiably irritate, annoy, or thwart; a want to disturb or put out another; mild malice.
Noun
spite (usually uncountable, plural spites)
- Ill will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the desire to unjustifiably irritate, annoy, or thwart; a want to disturb or put out another; mild malice.
- He was so filled with spite for his ex-wife, his brother was afraid of what he might do.
- They did it just for spite.
- Vexation; chagrin; mortification.
- "The time is out of joint: O cursed spite."c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
Verb
spite (third-person singular simple present spites, present participle spiting, simple past and past participle spited)
- To treat maliciously; to try to hurt or thwart.
- She soon married again, to spite her ex-husband.
- To be angry at; to hate.
- The Danes, then […] pagans, principally spited places of religion.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
- Synonyms:
- abhor, detest, loathe, abominate, can't stand, can't stand the sight of, despise, disrelish, execrate, hate
- To fill with spite; to offend; to vex.
- But the laſt and fatal Blow, given to that antient Learning, was in the time of Darius, Father of Xerxes, who with the reſt of the Perſians, ſpighted at the Magi, upon the Uſurpation of the Crown by one of their Number, (that counterfeited a younger Son of Cyrus after the Death of Cambyſes,) when...a. 1700 (date written), William Temple, “Some Thoughts upon Reviewing the Essay of Antient and Modern Learning”, in Miscellanea. The Third Part. […], London: […] Jonathan Swift, […] Benjamin Tooke...
Preposition
spite
spite meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
spite in Hindi
- ill-will or hatred toward another; a desire to vex or injure
- कीना kīnā, खुनस khunas, चिढ़ ciṛh, द्वेष dveṣ, कुनह kunah, जलापा jalāpā
spite in Tamil
- வஞ்சம், வன்மம்
spite in Urdu
- spite
- ایرکھا īrkhā, ایرشا īrśā
spite in Bengali
- বিদ্বেষ, আক্রোশ
More languagesFewer languages
- spite in Telugu
- ఈర్ష్య īrṣya, అక్కసు akkasu
- spite in Malayalam
- ഈർഷ്യ, പക, അസൂയ, വിരോധം
- spite in Kannada
- ದ್ವೇಷ, ಹಗೆತನ, ವೈರ, ಮಾತ್ಸರ್ಯ
- spite in Punjabi
- ਈਰਖਾ īrkhā
- spite in Sanskrit
- असूया asūyā
- spite in Malay
- dendam
- spite in Persian
- کینه kine, زلیفن zelifan
Examples of spite in a sentence
- Out of spite, the human beings pretended not to believe that it was Snowball who had destroyed the windmill: they said that it had fallen down because the walls were too thin.1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […]...
- sex with older men was a way to both internalize my spite towards my mother and to find security in a father figure I lacked with my own father.2014, Emivita, By Any Means Necessary: My Personal Struggles with Good and Evil:
Synonyms of spite
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of spite
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | spites |
| alternative form (obsolete) | spight |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | spites |
| present participle | spiting |
| past participle | spited |
| past | spited |
Origin of spite
From Middle English spit, a shortening of despit (whence despite), from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from Latin dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). Compare also North Frisian spīt, spīd (“regret”), Saterland Frisian Spiet (“regret, remorse”), West Frisian spyt (“regret”), Dutch spijt (“regret, remorse”), German Low German Spiet (“anger, regret, remorse”), German Spiet (“annoyance, vexation”), Swedish spit (“insult, outrage, annoyance”), Norwegian spit (“insult, outrage, annoyance”).
Words formed from spite
Phrases with spite
Words that rhyme with spite
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- knight
- slight
- Dwight
- height
- sight
- night
- sprite
- fight
- parasite
- site
- alight
- smite
- all right
- blight
- might
- mite
- skite
- cite
- indite
- lite
- outright
- plight
- bight
- excite
- ignite
- invite
- overnight
- uptight
- wight
- accite
- alright
- benight
- bewrite
- blite
- copyright
- despite
- dight
- disunite
- finite
- flite
- hight
- incite
- recite
- relight
- rewrite
- sleight
- spright
- wite
Questions about spite
- What does spite mean?
- Spite means ill will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the desire to unjustifiably irritate, annoy, or thwart; a want to disturb or put out another; mild malice.
- What is spite in Hindi?
- Spite in Hindi is कीना (kīnā), खुनस (khunas), चिढ़ (ciṛh). See Spite meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use spite in a sentence?
- Out of spite, the human beings pretended not to believe that it was Snowball who had destroyed the windmill: they said that it had fallen down because the walls were too thin.
- What part of speech is spite?
- Spite can be a noun, a verb or a preposition.
- How do you pronounce spite?
- Spite is pronounced /spaɪt/.
- What is the plural of spite?
- The plural of spite is spites.
Words near spite in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spite (page history and authors); spite (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ایرشا (Urdu) (page history and authors); Spite (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); అక్కసు (Telugu) (page history and authors); spite (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spite (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਈਰਖਾ (Punjabi) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-spite.ogg.
Cite this entry: “spite.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spite. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.