truculent.

Aggressively hostile, defiant, or ready to quarrel.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a truculent response
• a truculent manner

On the page

His truculent response turned a routine question into a challenge.

She met the truculent visitor without matching his appetite for a quarrel.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Comparative more truculent; superlative most truculent where gradation is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.