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vexatious

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An adjective describing something that causes annoyance, frustration, worry, or distress, often applied to petty or persistent troubles.

Detailed Definition
This word describes something that causes irritation, difficulty, or worry. Here it characterizes certain people as spiritually disturbing, giving the poem a more formal, old-fashioned diction.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit” (Ehrmann, “Desiderata”); “vexatious” means persistently irritating, troublesome, or distressing; the adjective can characterize noise, bureaucracy, weather, or a person’s repeated demands; a satiric poem might call official forms “vexatious paper weather,” making annoyance physical
Additional Notes
"Vexatious" is a relatively uncommon formal adjective, and the quoted line uses it in a way many readers may need to look up.; Found in the poem, Desiderata by Max Ehrmann
Also Known As
irritating troublesome exasperating
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