resentful
/ɹɪˈzɛntfəl/adjective
resentful is an adjective meaning “Inclined to resent, who tends to harbor resentment, when wronged” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-S-E-N-T-F-U-L and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 1 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does resentful mean?
adjective
- 1
Inclined to resent, who tends to harbor resentment, when wronged.
- 2
Harboring resentment, full of resentment, at a given moment.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce resentful?
- /ɹɪˈzɛntfəl/
Resentful has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-resentful.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of resentful
- more resentful comparative
- most resentful superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is resentful?
Resentful appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,017th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Resentful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | rancunier, rancuneux , indigné |
| Spanish | resentido |
| German | empört, verärgert, ärgert |
| Portuguese | ressentido |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does resentful come from?
From resent + -ful.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).