frustrating

adjective

frus·​trat·​ing ˈfrə-ˌstrā-tiŋ How to pronounce frustrating (audio)
Synonyms of frustratingnext
: causing feelings of anger and annoyance : tending to produce or characterized by frustration
a frustrating delay
a very frustrating experience
Mischel concludes that having the willpower to wait isn't about being stoic. It's about learning techniques that make waiting less frustrating.—Pamela Druckerman
frustratingly adverb
a frustratingly slow process
The book is sprawling and self-indulgent. Most frustratingly, it is almost entirely devoid of serious military analysis. —Hew Strachan

Synonyms of frustrating

Relevance
See All Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus

Examples of frustrating in a Sentence

All these delays have been very frustrating. these daily traffic jams are frustrating
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The Padres have to be one of the most frustrating teams in baseball. — David Troy Outkick, FOXNews.com, 6 July 2026 What makes this so frustrating is that the logic often sounds responsible. — Raj Ananthanpillai, Forbes.com, 8 July 2026 The annoyance economy is a catch-all term referring to a slew of frustrating business practices that waste our time and money. — Greg Rosalsky, NPR, 7 July 2026 But the One Way is a frustrating remnant of an unrealized summit of two legends. — Al Shipley, SPIN, 7 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for frustrating

Word History

First Known Use

1837, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of frustrating was in 1837

Rhymes for frustrating

See All Rhymes for frustrating

Browse Nearby Words

frustrater
frustrating
frustration
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Frustrating.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frustrating. Accessed 10 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

Kids Definition

frustrating

adjective
: producing frustration
a frustrating delay
frustratingly adverb

More from Merriam-Webster on frustrating

Nglish: Translation of frustrating for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 10
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
banana-mirrored
Contradictory Words Quiz Pick out which word means one thing…and the opp...
See All