Unruly

//ʌnˈɹuːli// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Wild; uncontrolled.

    "The police gathered to contain the unruly mob."

Adjective
  1. 1
    incapable of being controlled wordnet
  2. 2
    noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline wordnet
  3. 3
    unwilling to submit to authority wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
insubordinaterambunctiousungovernableabandonedanarchialanarchic

Example

More examples

"The restraining role that the community once played is losing its force as adults become reluctant to reprimand other people's unruly children."

Etymology

From Middle English unruly (“unquiet, restless”), equivalent to un- + rule + -ly (compare Middle English ruly, reuli (“subject to a religious rule, regular”)), but also representing a modified continuation of earlier Middle English unrouly, unroly (“unquiet, restless”), equivalent to un- + roolie. The latter is perhaps from or influenced by Old Norse *úróligr, related to Danish urolig (“restless”), Swedish orolig (“restless”), Icelandic órólegur (“agitated”). Compare also Middle English unroo, unro (“unrest”). More at roo.

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