Words / Q / General

querulous

adjective/ˈkwɛrʊləs/

C2CEFR level
75/100Rarity: rare
LiteraryRegister

Complaining in a peevish, whining manner.

His querulous tone made even reasonable requests sound like grievances.

Similar: petulant, peevish

Origin: Latin queri 'to complain'.

Topic: complaint 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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