derisive

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
12
Words With Friends
13
Letters
8
Pronunciation
/dɪˈɹaɪ.sɪv/(UK)
See all 5 pronunciations
/dɪˈɹaɪ.sɪv/(UK) · /dɪˈɹɪ.sɪv/(UK) · /dɪˈraɪsɪv/(US) · [dɪˈraɪsɪv](US) · [dɪˈrʌɪsɪv](US)

Definition of derisive

3 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Expressing or characterized by derision; mocking; ridiculing.
    “The critic's review of the film was derisive.”
    “Johnson shook his head, a derisive grin ticking the corners of his mouth.”
    “It’s a humiliating moment, to be sure. Tripp is riding to school with a bunch of other kids when a classmate pulls up alongside the bus driving a sweet, tricked-out truck, attractive young lady at his side, and shoots Tripp a derisive look.”
See all 3 definitions

adj

  1. Expressing or characterized by derision; mocking; ridiculing.
    “The critic's review of the film was derisive.”
    “Johnson shook his head, a derisive grin ticking the corners of his mouth.”
    “It’s a humiliating moment, to be sure. Tripp is riding to school with a bunch of other kids when a classmate pulls up alongside the bus driving a sweet, tricked-out truck, attractive young lady at his side, and shoots Tripp a derisive look.”
  2. Deserving or provoking derision or ridicule.
    “The plot of the film was so derisive that the audience began to jeer.”

noun

  1. (rare)A derisive remark.
    “The three lambs stood at bay, huddled close together, and helplessly bleated feeble derisives at the wolf who has headed them off from safety; but their polite and Englishy tone was a source of Homeric laughter to this Thersites of the Pleasance.”
    “He leaped over the embankment at the river's edge in such a manner that it appeared he had been fatally hit and was down for good; the Yankees shouting such derisives as "Another damn Rebel for hell," "Goodbye, you Rebel bastard," etc., didn't go right away to rob the corpse.”
    “Indeed, the power inherent in the labels attributed to them has repeatedly transformed these terms from allegedly scientific ones into colloquial derisives.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From the participle stem of Latin dērīdeō (“to deride”) + -ive.

Words you can make from derisive

127 playable · top: DERIVES (11 pts)

Best play derives 11 points

7-letter words

3 words

6-letter words

16 words

5-letter words

32 words

4-letter words

41 words

3-letter words

26 words

2-letter words

8 words

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