Inclement

adj

adj ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Stormy, of rough weather; not clement.

    "inclement weather"

  2. 2
    Merciless, unrelenting. obsolete

    "He lived in the world, as the last of the Grisly Bears lived in settled Missouri. And as when Spring and Summer had departed, that wild Logan of the woods, burying himself in the hollow of a tree, lived out the winter there, sucking his own paws; so, in his inclement, howling old age, Ahab’s soul, shut up in the caved trunk of his body, there fed upon the sullen paws of its gloom!"

  3. 3
    Unmercifully severe in temper or action. archaic
Adjective
  1. 1
    used of persons or behavior; showing no clemency or mercy wordnet
  2. 2
    (of weather or climate) severe wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
unsparingalgidarcticastringentausterebad

Example

More examples

"School closures due to inclement weather will necessitate extending the school year by three days."

Etymology

From Latin inclēmēns (“unmerciful, severe”), from in- (“not”) + clēmēns (“mild, placid”).

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