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vexatious

adjective

Simple meaning

Commenced for the purpose of giving trouble, without due cause.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

vehksayshuhs

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IPA pronunciation (US)

vɛkˈseɪʃəs

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Causing vexation or annoyance; teasing; troublesome.

  2. lawof an action

    Commenced for the purpose of giving trouble, without due cause.

  3. lawof a party or entity

    In the habit of starting vexatious litigation and therefore liable to have restraints placed on one's ability to access the courts.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

vexatious litigationvexatious delaysvexatious questionvexatious interferencevexatious problemsvexatious proceedings

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • teasing

    Causing irritation or annoyance.

  • annoying

    Causing irritation or annoyance.

  • vexing

    Causing annoyance or pain.

  • bothersome

    Causing trouble, annoyance, inconvenience, irritation, or perplexity.

  • irritating

    Causing irritation, annoyance or pain.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • vexatious litigationnounCompound term

    Litigation shown to have been instituted maliciously and without probable cause.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: causing vexation or annoyance

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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.