noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The state of being captious. uncountable, usually

   ""Yes— and I suppose you want to know why," she replied with dry captiousness."

2. 2
   Captious behaviour. uncountable, usually

Synonyms

All synonyms

animadversionaspersionbad noticesbad pressbickeringcarping

Example

More examples

""Yes— and I suppose you want to know why," she replied with dry captiousness."

Etymology

From captious + -ness.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.