malcontent
Americanadjective
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not satisfied or content with currently prevailing conditions or circumstances.
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dissatisfied with the existing government, administration, system, etc.
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of malcontent
Explanation
A malcontent is someone who's always dissatisfied. The guy at the restaurant who sends back the steak because it's too rare, then sends it back a second time complaining that it's not rare enough — he's a malcontent. Malcontent is often used to describe people who complain about more important things than steaks — things like social and political injustice. In Shakespeare's day, the Malcontent was a popular character type. Hamlet was a classic Malcontent. He believed that his uncle, King Claudius, murdered his father for power, and it made him angry that everyone else seemed to think that Claudius was a good person.
Vocabulary lists containing malcontent
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Take the Bad with the Good: Bene and Mal
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John McCain (1936 - 2018) Tribute List
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Perhaps deep in the movie’s own subterranean basement of ideas, “Hokum” is a modern take on Ebenezer Scrooge’s night terrors, only I wouldn’t put much stock in Scott’s malcontent turning his life around.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 30, 2026
If a coworker or kin finds herself cornered in a dour discussion with the malcontent, she will activate the most creative parts of her mind to engineer an excuse to exit the encounter.
From Salon • Aug. 10, 2024
She’s the kind of malcontent who will, in all sincerity, accuse people of being “in cahoots.”
From New York Times • Feb. 29, 2024
Ducey, like Arizona’s first presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, is a cheerful malcontent.
From Washington Post • Dec. 7, 2022
I worried that an appearance in Ossining might present some malcontent with an opportunity to come after me.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
