Meaning & use

temperamental

adjective·Academic

Having moods or behavior that change unpredictably; easily upset or irritated.

See it in a sentence

The old printer was temperamental and often jammed for no clear reason.

As a temperamental artist, he refused to work when anyone watched him paint.

A note on using this word

Temperamental describes both people with unpredictable moods and machines that perform inconsistently or unreliably.

Words with a similar meaning

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

even-tempered

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