rude
adjective
discourteous or impolite, especially in a deliberate way.
rude
1 American
[rood]
/ rud /
adjective
-
ruder,
comparative
-
rudest
superlative
-
discourteous or impolite, especially in a deliberate way.
a rude reply.
- Synonyms:
- fresh, pert, saucy, impudent, impertinent, brusque, curt, unmannerly, uncivil
-
without culture, learning, or refinement.
rude, illiterate peasants.
- Synonyms:
- rough, vulgar, coarse, uncouth, uncivilized, uncultured, unrefined
-
rough in manners or behavior; unmannerly; uncouth.
-
rough, harsh, or ungentle.
rude hands.
-
roughly wrought, built, or formed; of a crude construction or kind.
a rude cottage.
-
not properly or fully developed; raw; unevolved.
a rude first stage of development.
-
harsh to the ear.
rude sounds.
-
without artistic elegance; of a primitive simplicity.
a rude design.
-
violent or tempestuous, as the waves.
- Synonyms:
- stormy, turbulent, tumultuous, fierce
-
robust, sturdy, or vigorous.
rude strength.
-
approximate or tentative.
a rude first calculation of costs.
Rude
2
American
[r y d]
/ rüd /
noun
rude
British
/ ruːd /
adjective
-
insulting or uncivil; discourteous; impolite
he was rude about her hairstyle
-
lacking refinement; coarse or uncouth
-
vulgar or obscene
a rude joke
-
unexpected and unpleasant
a rude awakening to the facts of economic life
-
roughly or crudely made
we made a rude shelter on the island
-
rough or harsh in sound, appearance, or behaviour
-
humble or lowly
-
(prenominal) robust or sturdy
in rude health
-
(prenominal) approximate or imprecise
a rude estimate
Synonym Usage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
overrudenessnoun
-
rudenessnoun
-
overrudeadjective
-
unrudeadjective
-
overrudelyadverb
-
rudelyadverb
-
unrudelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of rude
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English rude, ruide, from Old French, from Latin rudis
Explanation
Rude describes a type of behavior that isn't appropriate and usually isn't very nice, either — like yelling "You stink!" at a children's talent show. Rude refers to bad behavior or just plain bad manners. For example, children are taught to say "please" and "thank you" or they are considered rude. A rude person needs a little work — rude also means crude or basic, like a rude cabin out in the woods that barely keeps the rain out. It can be a sudden realization, too. If you wake up and see your breath, it's a rude awakening that the heat's not working.
Vocabulary lists containing rude
Christmas Carol Vocab: A Lyrical Lexicon
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Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech
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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.
See Examples For:
Only instead of just peacefully apprehending opponents, Doncic’s super-competitive alter ego wants to smash them all under an array of increasingly rude step-back jumpers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
Always something familiar enough that people could talk gently over it without feeling rude.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026
Some experts have also posited that being rude to AI chatbots could adversely impact human communication, by seeping into how we talk to and treat others.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
The loss to Oregon last season served as a rude awakening for USC and Maiava, a reminder of how far both still had to go before reaching their potential.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
His willingness to be rude about a few of these subprime originators was, in a way, useful.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Following her was fellow queen Kochina Rude who came out dressed as Pee-wee Herman to perform the Germs’ “Lexicon Devil” before stage-diving into the crowd.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Emelyn Rude, author of Tastes Like Chicken: A History of America’s Favorite Bird, says “the shock comes from this dissonance: we don’t think of it as a luxury food.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
“This suggests that mature consumers are not only growing in number but also increasing their spending at a significant pace,” said Jana Rude, Euromonitor’s senior global insight manager for consumers.
From Barron's ● Nov. 28, 2025
Rude gestures are rare on postage stamps, but Ukraine's best known stamp has one.
From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2024
“I meant you. You should have heard the Rude brothers going on.”
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
The Pew survey found that just under half of U.S. adults polled — 47% — said the way people behave in public these days is ruder than before the pandemic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2025
It’s hard to see what’s ruder than the way we’re trashing it with our vainglorious Seattle neglect.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 30, 2023
They talk the way real people talk, but they’re freer, ruder, funnier.
From New York Times ● Mar. 13, 2023
Her live routine is also "a lot ruder", she says.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2022
John closed the door behind him and stood in the narrow church aisle, hearing behind him the voices of children playing, and ruder voices, the voices of their elders, cursing and crying in the streets.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
It’s that they’ve done it by transforming into the rudest, most hard-hitting, trash-talking team in professional basketball.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
It was a rude speech, maybe the rudest by a national leader in Davos history.
From Slate ● Jan. 21, 2026
If there was hope, and belief, that this type of performance was maybe behind them, then this was the rudest of rude awakenings.
From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2025
The rudest, most disrespectful tweets garner eight times as many likes and ten times as many retweets as civil ones.
From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2022
“Is this not just the rudest thing you’ve ever heard of?”
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
