Words / P / General

petulant

adjective/ˈpɛtjʊlənt/

B2CEFR level
45/100Rarity: uncommon
NeutralRegister

Childishly sulky or bad-tempered over trifles.

He gave a petulant shrug and stormed off when his idea was overlooked.

Similar: sulky, peevish

Origin: Latin petulans 'impudent', from petere 'to seek, attack'.

Topic: irritability in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: irritability