Impertinent

//ɪmˈpɝ.tɪ.nənt// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An impertinent individual.

    "Get near fat Mr. Dutton, and behind the screen of his prodigious elbow, you will be comfortably recessed from curious impertinents."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Insolent, ill-mannered or disrespectful; Disregardful.

    "“Divine receptacle of excellence, let it not be deemed impertinent, or deviating from the rules of propriety, if I propound one queſtion which now labours in my breaſt; aſſuring me firſt, you will not let the ſceptre of true judgment depart from your right hand.”"

  2. 2
    Not pertaining or related to (something or someone); Irrelevant or useless. archaic

    "Curious speculations, and the contemplation of things that are impertinent to us, and do not concern us, nor serve to promote our happiness, are but a more specious and ingenious sort of idleness"

Adjective
  1. 1
    improperly forward or bold wordnet
  2. 2
    not pertinent to the matter under consideration wordnet
  3. 3
    characterized by a lightly pert and exuberant quality wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
forwardirrelevantsaucyadriftarrogantaudacious

Example

More examples

"He was impertinent to his father."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English impertinent, from Middle French impertinent, from Old French impertinent, from Latin impertinēns; by surface analysis, im- + pertinent.

Related phrases

ill mannered

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