While Tom was picking blackberries, the thorny canes scratched his arms and legs several times. "Next time I do this," he told Mary, "I'll be sure to wear long sleeves so that I don't get so many little scratches."
Source: tatoeba (5190805)
Thorny
//ˈθɔːni//
Synonyms for "thorny" (121 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (25)
Strong matches (36)
Related words (60)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Synonyms
2 entriesderived
10 entriesderived from
1 entriesrelated to
6 entriessimilar
4 entriesTranslations
76 translations across 33 languages.
Ancient Greek
2 entries- ἀκάνθινος adj (having thorns)
- ἀκανθώδης adj (having thorns)
Arabic
2 entries- شَائِك adj (having thorns)
- شَائِك adj (troublesome)
Armenian
1 entries- փշոտ adj (having thorns)
Assamese
1 entries- কাঁইটীয়া adj (having thorns)
Bikol Central
1 entries- matunok adj (having thorns)
Bulgarian
4 entries- бодлив adj (having thorns)
- тежък adj (troublesome)
- труден adj (troublesome)
- трънлив adj (having thorns)
Cherokee
1 entries- ᏧᏣᏲᏍᏗ adj (having thorns)
Chinese Mandarin
3 entries- 棘手 adj (troublesome)
- 難纏 /难缠 adj (troublesome)
- 麻煩 /麻烦 adj (troublesome)
Czech
4 entries- ostnatý adj (having thorns)
- ožehavý adj (troublesome)
- palčivý adj (troublesome)
- pichlavý adj (having thorns)
Esperanto
2 entries- dorna adj (having thorns)
- dorna adj (troublesome)
Finnish
3 entries- okainen adj (having thorns)
- okainen adj (troublesome)
- piikikäs adj (having thorns)
French
2 entries- épineux adj (having thorns)
- épineux adj (troublesome)
German
4 entries- dornig adj (having thorns)
- dornig adj (troublesome)
- problematisch adj (troublesome)
- schwierig adj (troublesome)
Greek
1 entries- αγκαθερός adj (having thorns)
Hebrew
1 entries- קֹוצָנִי adj (having thorns)
Hindi
1 entries- कटीला adj (having thorns)
Icelandic
1 entries- þyrnóttur adj (having thorns)
Irish
2 entries- deilgneach adj (having thorns)
- spíonach adj (having thorns)
Italian
2 entries- spinoso adj (having thorns)
- spinoso adj (troublesome)
Latin
2 entries- spīnifer adj (having thorns)
- spīnōsus adj (having thorns)
Latvian
1 entries- ērkšķains adj (having thorns)
Macedonian
4 entries- боцкав adj (having thorns)
- мачен adj (troublesome)
- трнлив adj (having thorns)
- трнлив adj (troublesome)
Māori
4 entries- kōtaratara adj (having thorns)
- kūrakuraku adj (troublesome)
- pōrahurahu adj (troublesome)
- pūtaratara adj (having thorns)
Old English
1 entries- þorniġ adj (having thorns)
Polish
3 entries- ciernisty adj (having thorns)
- kolczasty adj (having thorns)
- najeżony adj (troublesome)
Portuguese
3 entries- espinhento adj (having thorns)
- espinhoso adj (having thorns)
- espinhoso adj (troublesome)
Russian
4 entries- колю́чий adj (having thorns)
- терни́стый adj (having thorns)
- терни́стый adj (troublesome)
- тру́дный adj (troublesome)
Scottish Gaelic
2 entries- deilgneach adj (having thorns)
- droighneach adj (having thorns)
Spanish
4 entries- espinoso adj (having thorns)
- espinoso adj (troublesome)
- espinudo adj (having thorns)
- espinudo adj (troublesome)
Sranan Tongo
1 entries- makamaka adj (having thorns)
Tagalog
1 entries- matinik adj (having thorns)
Turkish
2 entries- dikenli adj (having thorns)
- dikenli adj (troublesome)
Welsh
2 entries- dreiniog adj (having thorns)
- pigog adj (having thorns)
Sample sentences
17 total sentences available.
For giraffes, the thorny acacia leaves are a feast.
Source: tatoeba (8557190)
Thorny as they are, brambles give blackberries.
Source: tatoeba (10041640)
Tom brought up a very thorny subject during the barbecue.
Source: tatoeba (10681979)
Showing 4 of 17 available sentences.
Keep exploring
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.