UNRULINESS Synonyms: 64 Similar and Opposite Words

unruliness

noun

Definition of unruliness

as in rebellion

refusal to obey frustrated by the boys' unruliness, the lifeguard asked them to leave the pool

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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.

Recent Examples of unruliness Conservative pundits may have wanted Anne to be a model orphan, but that desire just threw her unruliness into sharper relief. — Literary Hub, 26 Aug. 2026 Katseye doesn’t seem to get in as much trouble as K-pop idols have in the past for swearing; a patina of unruliness has endeared the group to its followers. — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 21 Aug. 2026 In 2024, Buffett offered prescient reflections on the unruliness of the market, long before the prediction markets began to sway Wall Street. — Jacqueline Munis, Fortune, 28 Apr. 2026 In Olga Tokarczuk’s work, knowing how to pick mushrooms—organisms open to unruliness and interconnection and resistant to easy labeling—is a sign of good character. — Christopher Tayler, The New York Review of Books, 2 Oct. 2025 Any unruliness was saved for the sketches. — Rachel Syme, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025 Bateman commits to his character’s wiry unruliness and makes Vince into a self-destructive twit, which is probably by intent. — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 16 Sep. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for unruliness

Noun

As the competition unfolds, Haymitch risks everything to take down the Games from within the arena — setting in motion the rebellion that will change Panem forever.

— Armando Tinoco, Deadline, 28 Oct. 2026
My assumption that the guest speakers’ anti-Communist insurrection might resonate with today’s youth and their antisystem rebellion proved to be mistaken.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 27 Oct. 2026

Definition of rebellion

Noun

This hint of connection between them is later made concrete when, at the demonstration, the two are complicit in an act of defiance — throwing a cobblestone at a policeman, badly injuring him — and must skip town for the night.

— Guy Lodge, Variety, 27 Oct. 2026
These behaviors can be signals of distress but may be mistaken for defiance.

— Jermaine F. Williams, Baltimore Sun, 27 Oct. 2026

Definition of defiance

Noun

That’s great news for Vanguart’s four cofounders, who established the company in 2018 with a wealth of experience, if not some serious horological rebelliousness.

— Rachel Ingram, Robb Report, 18 Oct. 2026
The stigma helped imprint a stamp of rebelliousness on the brand which lives on today, says Carpenter, even as Burton has become a fixture on resort slopes across the world and within the annals of Olympian history.

— Tom Huddleston Jr., CNBC, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of rebelliousness

Noun

And from that boredom, a different kind of will, the willfulness that accompanies a need to destroy that happiness.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 Oct. 2026
From grandmother to grandchild, these three sets of two sisters were powerful characters possessed with passion, willfulness, bravery, and devotion to each other.

— Griffin Dunne, Vanity Fair, 11 Sep. 2026

Definition of willfulness

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unruled

unruliness

unruly

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“Unruliness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unruliness. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of unruliness

noun

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