temperamental
adjective
Simple meaning
Subject to changing and unpredictable emotional states.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehmpruhmehntuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
tɛmpɹəˈmɛntəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Subject to changing and unpredictable emotional states; moody, capricious.
not comparable
Of, related to, or caused by temperament.
of a machine or of softwarefiguratively
User-unfriendly, unstable, that is complicated or has poorly written instructions and is subsequently difficult to operate; unpredictable and erratic.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Subject to changing and unpredictable emotional states; moody, capricious.
Used this way, temperamental is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use temperamental
- “Temperamental indifference to neatness.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.