Meaning & use
querulous
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Meaning
adjectivecomparableformaldisapproving
Complaining often in a thin, irritable, whining way about small matters.
Grammar: Describes people or their voices: a querulous old man, a querulous tone.
Patterns
- a querulous voice
- querulous about something
The querulous customer sent back his soup three times.
Her querulous voice carried across the quiet waiting room.
He grew querulous as the delay dragged on.
Word forms
| comparative | more querulous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most querulous |
Common combinations
- querulous voice
- A querulous voice asked why the bus was late.
- querulous tone
- She spoke in a querulous tone that wore everyone out.
- querulous old man
- A querulous old man complained about the noise every night.
- querulous complaint
- His querulous complaint about the draft was ignored.
- grow querulous
- He grew querulous as the evening wore on.
Synonyms and how they differ
- whiny
- Whiny is informal and often used about children, while querulous is more formal and suits adults.
- peevish
- Peevish focuses on irritable bad temper, while querulous focuses on the habit of complaining.
- petulant
- Petulant suggests sulky, childish annoyance when you do not get your way, not constant complaining.
- grumbling
- Grumbling describes the act of low-level complaint, while querulous describes a person's habitual manner.
Opposites
Word family
- querulously adverb
- in a complaining, whining manner
- querulousness noun
- the quality of being querulous
- quarrel noun
- an angry argument, from a related Latin root
Commonly confused: querulous or quarrelsome?
querulous vs quarrelsome
Quarrelsome describes someone who starts arguments. Querulous describes someone who complains in a whining way.
Practice
Which person is best described as querulous?
Choose one answer.
Querulous means habitually complaining in a whining tone. Asking questions is a different thing, and arguing loudly is more quarrelsome.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “querulous”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.