acrimonious

/ˌæk.ɹɪˈməʊ.nɪ.əs/

//ˌæk.ɹɪˈməʊ.nɪ.əs// adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"acrimonious" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“acrimonious” has 15 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #49,751. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#49,751
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords
15
tracked misspellings

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Harsh and sharp, or bitter and not pleasant to the taste; acrid, pungent.

Corpus desk

Index EN-acrimonious · acrimonious · English

acrimonious · rank #49,751 · 15 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #49,751
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 15 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH accelerometer

Nearest frequency peer: accelerometer (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “acrimonious”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “acrimonious” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for acrimonious
PropertyValue
Headwordacrimonious
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
IPA/ˌæk.ɹɪˈməʊ.nɪ.əs/
Letters11
Frequency rank#49,751
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “acrimonious”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).acrimoniouslands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “accelerometer” (#49,750), “Adelphi” (#49,752), “adorning” (#49,753). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “acrimonious” is #49,751. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 15 spelling variants around acrimonious (IPA /ˌæk.ɹɪˈməʊ.nɪ.əs/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #49,751 among 3,931 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for acrimonious, with forms such as "accrimonious", "acirmonious", and "acrimmonious". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From acrimony + -ous; compare French acrimonieux (“acrimonious”), from Latin ācrimōniōsus (“acrimonious”), from ācrimōnia (“pungency, sharpness; acrimony, austerity”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning “full of; prone to”, forming adjectives from nouns) (ultimately fr… The correct English form is acrimonious, spelled A-C-R-I-M-O-N-I-O-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Harsh and sharp, or bitter and not pleasant to the taste; acrid, pungent.
  2. 2
    Angry, acid, and sharp in delivering argumentative replies: bitter, mean-spirited, sharp in language or tone.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how acrimonious appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The old man […] began to suffer in the body as well as the mind. He had formed the determination of setting out in person for Dumfriesshire, when, after having been dogged, peevish, and snappish to his clerks and domestics, to an unusual and almost intolerable degree, the acrimonious humours settled in a hissing-hot fit of the gout, which is a well-known…
  2. [I]t is sufficiently evident from the physiology of man, that boils and eruptions cannot be produced in perfectly healthy persons through the action of water, since water is a matter the most conceivably mild, and since boils produce a feeling always painful, and more or less acrimonious and corrosive, which can only be caused by acrid corrosive matters,…

Etymology

From acrimony + -ous; compare French acrimonieux (“acrimonious”), from Latin ācrimōniōsus (“acrimonious”), from ācrimōnia (“pungency, sharpness; acrimony, austerity”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning “full of; prone to”, forming adjectives from nouns) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-went- or *-wont- + *-to-). Ācrimōnia is derived from Latin ācer (“sharp; bitter, sour”) (from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱrós (“sharp”), from *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) + *-rós (suffix forming adjectives from Caland system roots)) + Latin -mōnia (the feminine form of -mōnium (suffix forming collective nouns and nouns designating legal status or obligation), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-mō (suffix forming agent nouns from verbs)).

Synonyms

acerbacerbicacridbitterrancorous

Antonyms

nonacrimonious

This word in other languages

áspero(Español)acrimonieux(Français)erbittert(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • accrimonious
  • acirmonious
  • acrimmonious
  • acrimnoious
  • acrimoinous
  • acrimoniosu
  • acrimoniouss
  • acrimoniuos
  • acrimonnious
  • acrimonoius
  • acriomnious
  • acrmionious
  • acrrimonious
  • arcimonious
  • carimonious

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of acrimonious - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

accrimonious1acirmonious2acrimmonious1acrimnoious2acrimoinous2acrimoniosu2acrimoniouss1acrimoniuos2
Edit distance from "acrimonious"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "acrimonious"?
"acrimonious" is spelled A-C-R-I-M-O-N-I-O-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is /ˌæk.ɹɪˈməʊ.nɪ.əs/.
What does "acrimonious" mean?
As an adjective, "acrimonious" means: Harsh and sharp, or bitter and not pleasant to the taste; acrid, pungent.
What are common misspellings of "acrimonious"?
Common misspellings include "accrimonious", "acirmonious", "acrimmonious", "acrimnoious", "acrimoinous". The correct spelling is "acrimonious".
How do you pronounce "acrimonious"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "acrimonious" is /ˌæk.ɹɪˈməʊ.nɪ.əs/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "acrimonious"?
From acrimony + -ous; compare French acrimonieux (“acrimonious”), from Latin ācrimōniōsus (“acrimonious”), from ācrimōnia (“pungency, sharpness; acrimony, austerity”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning “full of; prone to”, forming adjectives from nouns) (ult... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "acrimonious", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Wallingford#49,715unwillingly#49,696unpalatable#49,695cataloguing#49,816

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (15 here; floor ≥5).

wraparound15 variantsbarometric15 variantsWilhelmina15 variantswatchlist15 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list