How to Use spiteful in a Sentence

spiteful

adjective
  • Its shock to the body is matched with a spiteful slap to the eardrum.
    — Philip Elliott, Time, 21 Nov. 2022
  • What does that mean, a spiteful number?
    — Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 17 Feb. 2026
  • That's a fraction of the fights this spiteful bully has picked over the years.
    — The Indianapolis Star, 18 July 2022
  • So this gave me a chance to address some of those things, just not in a spiteful or vengeful way.
    — Laia Garcia-Furtado, Vogue, 19 June 2024
  • He's been acting like a spiteful 65-year-old child ever since.
    — Tribune News Service, OregonLive.com, 17 June 2017
  • Jane Austen, the great artist of spiteful snobbery and petty vengeance, knew this well.
    — Charlie Tyson, The Atlantic, 13 May 2021
  • What intrigued me the most are the twisted stories about camels who are known to be spiteful and hold a grudge.
    — Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 4 Dec. 2023
  • You should not be held captive for years because your spiteful almost-ex is dragging things out.
    — Abigail Van Buren, Twin Cities, 9 Nov. 2019
  • To me, the union’s decision is spiteful and only harms students.
    — baltimoresun.com, 12 May 2021
  • The man who was talking turned away, and so did the others, except for one who stared me down, his spiteful eyes full of plans.
    — David Rabe, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2020
  • Three local boys in a passing car add to her horrific ordeal with their own spiteful taunts.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Jan. 2022
  • This has had an adverse effect for him as the spiteful trolls are attacking him for his kindness.
    — Noelle Devoe, Seventeen, 3 May 2017
  • Everyone has an acid tongue and brims with spiteful resentment.
    — The Week Us, TheWeek, 27 May 2026
  • Tourette’s can feel spiteful and searches out the most upsetting tic for me personally and for those around me.
    — Clayton Davis, Variety, 24 Feb. 2026
  • Now that Nate has turned into a spiteful rival coach, both the actor and his fans have reservations.
    — Marco Della Cava, USA TODAY, 29 Mar. 2023
  • This is a spiteful attack on a citizen and freedom of expression.
    — James Masters, CNN, 16 Oct. 2017
  • Some people from Chiloé even carry a potato in their pocket like an amulet to ward off spells cast by spiteful neighbours.
    — Mark Johanson, The Economist, 28 Aug. 2020
  • Luckily for us there were more than enough people for Channon to remain spiteful and amusing about.
    — Mark Peikert, Town & Country, 14 Feb. 2022
  • Played by a sniveling Casey Siemaszko, Billy is spineless and spiteful.
    — Sezin Devi Koehler September 1, EW.com, 1 Sep. 2025
  • In the long term, having a spiteful team member is much harder to manage and can have a ripple effect on the engagement of the wider team.
    — Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 6 May 2023
  • That battle may have ended in a stalemate, but the feud took a darker turn a few years later, when 4chan users were more focused and more spiteful.
    — Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 1 Feb. 2022
  • There's nothing spiteful about the delay, Forrester said; the permitting process simply took longer than hoped.
    — Sven Berg, idahostatesman, 14 May 2018
  • The more spiteful Drake could smell a world of buff, misogynistic grifters taking hold and made sure to set up shop where the audience would be.
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 7 Feb. 2025
  • On the surface, the conservative Christian woman wouldn’t dare have a spiteful thought.
    — Kaely Monahan, The Arizona Republic, 5 Apr. 2024
  • More often than not, the word has been used as a derogatory term to categorize a woman as spiteful or overbearing.
    — Megan Rodriguez, San Antonio Express-News, 20 Nov. 2021
  • Anyone who has worked the red carpet for years will be inoculated against the spiteful tabloid comments about a glimpse of cellulite, or a stray gray hair.
    — Daisy Goodwin, Time, 17 May 2018
  • That the spiteful man sees only as far as the spiteful man can, and that can produce a work of art that is successful, but maybe not ultimately great.
    — David Frum, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
  • They were clouded by an entire era of underperformance, tough luck and spiteful ownership.
    — Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2025
  • The vocalist leans his every arch, icy and spiteful lyric reading into co-writer Watt’s grinding guitars and chunky bass lines.
    — A.d. Amorosi, Variety, 6 Jan. 2023
  • At one point, the address of Fang Fang’s house in Wuhan was published, and people wrapped rocks with spiteful messages and lobbed them over her wall.
    — Peter Hessler, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'spiteful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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