What is another word for unruly?
Synonyms for unruly
ʌnˈru liun·ru·ly
This thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word unruly.
English Synonyms and Antonyms
unruly
Balky, mulish, obstinate, and stubborn are synonyms of restive only in an infrequent if not obsolete use; the supposed sense of "tending to rest," "standing stubbornly still," is scarcely supported by any examples, and those cited to support that meaning often fail to do so. The disposition to offer active resistance to control by any means whatever is what is commonly indicated by restive in the best English speech and literature. Dryden speaks of "the pampered colt" as "restiff to the rein;" but the rein is not used to propel a horse forward, but to hold him in, and it is against this that he is "restiff." A horse may be made restless by flies or by martial music, but with no refractoriness; the restive animal impatiently resists or struggles to break from control, as by bolting, flinging his rider, or otherwise. With this the metaphorical use of the word agrees, which is always in the sense of such terms as impatient, intractable, rebellious, and the like; a people restive under despotism are not disposed to "rest" under it, but to resist it and fling it off.
Synonyms:
balky, fidgety, fractious, fretful, frisky, impatient, intractable, mulish, mutinous, obstinate, rebellious, recalcitrant, refractory, resentful, restiff, restive, restless, skittish, stubborn, viciousAntonyms:
docile, gentle, manageable, obedient, passive, peaceable, quiet, submissive, tractable, yielding
Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms
unruly
Synonyms:
ungovernable, unmanageable, refractory
Princeton's WordNet
boisterous, rambunctious, robustious, rumbustious, unrulyadjective
noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline
"a boisterous crowd"; "a social gathering that became rambunctious and out of hand"; "a robustious group of teenagers"; "beneath the rumbustious surface of his paintings is sympathy for the vulnerability of ordinary human beings"; "an unruly class"
Synonyms:
rambunctious, rumbustious, indocile, robustious, disobedient, rough, uncontrollable, boisterous, ungovernable, knockabout, fierceAntonyms:
manageable, orderly, subordinatedisobedient, unrulyadjective
unwilling to submit to authority
"unruly teenagers"
Synonyms:
rambunctious, rumbustious, indocile, robustious, disobedient, uncontrollable, boisterous, ungovernableAntonyms:
manageable, subordinate, orderlyindocile, uncontrollable, ungovernable, unrulyadjective
of persons
"the little boy's parents think he is spirited, but his teacher finds him unruly"
Synonyms:
rambunctious, rumbustious, irrepressible, indocile, robustious, disobedient, uncorrectable, uncontrollable, boisterous, ungovernable, unmanageableAntonyms:
subordinate, manageable, orderly
Dictionary of English Synonymes
unrulyadjective
Synonyms:
turbulent, ungovernable, refractory, disobedient, insubordinate, mutinous, riotous, seditious, rebellious
Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words
unrulyadjective
Synonyms:
turbulent, ungovernable, refractory, insubordinate, fractious, insurgent, indocile, disobedient, froward, vicious, intractable, rebellious
PPDB, the paraphrase database
List of paraphrases for "unruly":
Usage in printed sourcesFrom:
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Words popularity by usage frequency
ranking | word | |
---|---|---|
#5548 | rough | |
#15142 | fierce | |
#15992 | vicious | |
#16417 | wrongful | |
#18495 | restless | |
#20272 | turbulent | |
#24054 | stubborn | |
#27763 | refractory | |
#27965 | impatient | |
#33175 | rebellious | |
#39319 | disorderly | |
#39714 | unruly | |
#40751 | uncontrollable | |
#42831 | intractable | |
#60245 | boisterous | |
#61633 | frisky | |
#62649 | disobedient | |
#64747 | unmanageable | |
#65748 | resentful | |
#66176 | obstinate | |
#70249 | recalcitrant | |
#77881 | irrepressible | |
#95129 | undisciplined | |
#100787 | skittish | |
#101493 | restive | |
#101520 | rambunctious | |
#111798 | fidgety | |
#111963 | fractious | |
#166645 | fretful | |
#179979 | ungovernable | |
#183607 | mutinous | |
#191473 | knockabout | |
#212583 | uncorrectable | |
#228084 | balky |
How to use unruly in a sentence?
But while capitalism may be a convenient scapegoat, it did not cause any of these problems. Indeed, whatever one wishes to call the unruly mixture of freedom and government controls that made up our economic and political system during the last three decades, one cannot call it capitalism.
The customer was restrained and law enforcement officials met the flight at the gate, where all passengers safely deplaned. The unruly customer was held for questioning by law enforcement.
Our pilot relied on his training and professionalism, was able to just push the passenger backwards, retook control of the aircraft, passengers helped restrain the unruly passenger, and they landed the plane without incident. Further incident.
The current regime of unregulated, unruly, unethical influence companies both makes us unsafe and undermines democratic debate.
We will no longer adjudicate certain of these unruly passenger cases with counseling or warnings. We’re going to go straight to enforcement.
Translations for unruly
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- جامح, متوحش, خارج عن السيطرةArabic
- widerspenstigGerman
- revoltoso, descontrolado, incontrolableSpanish
- سرکش, نافرمانPersian
- kuritonFinnish
- indiscipliné, désobéissant, incontrôlableFrench
- अनियंत्रितHindi
- סוררHebrew
- descontrolado, desgovernadoPortuguese
- nesupus, neascultătorRomanian
- непокорныйRussian
- ngỗ nghịchVietnamese
Get even more translations for unruly »
Translation
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"unruly." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 18 Feb. 2025. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/unruly>.
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