Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Deserving of contempt or scorn; vile.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- That may be or deserves to be despised; contemptible; base; vile; worthless: applicable equally to persons and things: as, a despicable man; a despicable gift.
- Synonyms Paltry, Pitiful, etc. See contemptible.
Wiktionary
- adj. Fit or deserving to be despised; contemptible; mean; vile; worthless
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Fit or deserving to be despised; contemptible; mean; vile; worthless.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. morally reprehensible
Etymologies
- 1550s, from Late Latin despicabilis, from Latin dēspiciō ("I despise"), from de ("down") + speciō ("I look at, behold"). (Wiktionary)
- Late Latin dēspicābilis, from Latin dēspicārī, to despise; see spek- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Binyamin Netanyahu's robust statement placed what he described as a despicable act – which shattered the relative calm in the West Bank over recent months – at the centre of strenuous efforts by the US and European countries to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.”
The Guardian: Binyamin Netanyahu calls on world to act after killing of Jewish settlers
“Rutgers women's basketball players today blast Don Imus for what they call his despicable language about their team, but the players have agreed to meet with Imus to hear his point of view.”
“He's apologizing for what he calls his despicable words after he was arrested for drunken driving.”
“CNN's Brooke Anderson has more on the arrest, Gibson's apology for what he calls despicable remarks and the alleged cover-up.”
“Police management on Thursday condemned what it described as despicable rumours about members of the board of trustees of the police medical aid scheme Polmed.”
“Ismail defended the bombing of the SAAF headquarters by referring to what he described as the despicable conduct of the security forces which butchered children in Soweto in 1976.”
“Out of what you call the despicable race of Negroes, debased, demoralized by two hundred years of slavery, 100,000 of them imported into the island within four years, unable to speak a dialect intelligible even to each other.”
“Aaron Burr are largely reduced to an amusing but pointless conversation with four gigantic hoodlums from Baltimore who are asked to interpret the word "despicable," which triggered the Burr-Hamilton duel.”
“Civil Protection Minister Michalis Chryssochoidis condemned what he called a despicable act of terrorism.”
“Yale is not new to fraternities acting in despicable, misogynistic ways," she said, pointing to a 2008 incident in which the Zeta Psi fraternity posed for a group picture in front of the Women's Center holding a sign that read "We love Yale Sluts.”
The Huffington Post: Yale Fraternity Apologizes For Chanting "I F--- Dead Women" (VIDEO)
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘despicable’.
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probablyankita's list
Words are all I have to take your heart away
apartheid, techno-klutz, logorrheic, gordian knot, anodyne, odor of sanctity, finders keepers, foot-in-mouth dis..., dutch uncle, masquerade, smoke signals, furtive glance and 320 more...
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 319 more...
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macabre
words associated with the macabre & horror.
( open list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.co...ghastly, grisly, culeus, silly, gruesome, horrid, morbid, angelic, shocking, hideous, ghoulish, frightful and 138 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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Pickle and such
Words that end like pickle. Listed here because they're funny (because they end like pickle).
pickle, sparkle, yokel, tinkle, fickle, prickle, trickle, circle, snorkel, ensnorkel, chuckle, buckle and 137 more...
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Unfamiliar Words
dank, refrain, hostage, frigid, warden, atrocious, squirm, kinship, riot, counterfeit, stamped, scaffolding and 63 more...
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gre
divest, elixir, onerous, disabuse, discern, sordid, erudition, broach, beguile, apologia, elusive, capacious and 7 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Prep my Lang
Collection of my wordnik word search
equivocal, anomaly, proliferate, assimilate, obscure, aberration, parse, circumnavigate, circumvent, decipher, prose, impasse and 94 more...
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And another
retrocausality, brusque, gainsay, cheerio, jaundiced, chamois, caw, craw, fudge, bubbler, shebang, bolo and 244 more...
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WL_2
repulsion, loath, repugnant, despicable, odious, abhorrence, execrable, detestable, scurvy, animosity, rancor, insurgent and 83 more...
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Rilakkuma's list
The Velvetine Ruffians
gamine, waif, ruffian, villain, rake, libertine, velvetine, luminary, nom de plume, street urchin, epicurean, eventide and 256 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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KlinkKlonk's Words
hugger-muggering, gabfest, zedonk, serendipitous, schauden freude, scintilla, iconoclast, firebrand, floccinaucinihili..., schlepping, flaccid, iridescent and 126 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, D
dodecahedron, din, diglyceride, dysphotopsia, decoction, deboss, diatonic, dithyramb, divagate, discalced, dishdasha, daft and 281 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for despicable.

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