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TEMPERAMENTAL
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Dictionary entry overview: What does temperamental mean?
• TEMPERAMENTAL (adjective)
The adjective TEMPERAMENTAL has 3 senses:
1. relating to or caused by temperament
2. subject to sharply varying moods
3. likely to perform unpredictably
Familiarity information: TEMPERAMENTAL used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Relating to or caused by temperament
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Context example:
temperamental peculiarities
Pertainym:
temperament (your usual mood)
Derivation:
temperament (your usual mood)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Subject to sharply varying moods
Synonyms:
moody; temperamental
Context example:
a temperamental opera singer
Similar:
emotional (of more than usual emotion)
Derivation:
temperament (excessive emotionalism or irritability and excitability (especially when displayed openly))
Sense 3
Meaning:
Likely to perform unpredictably
Synonyms:
erratic; temperamental
Context example:
that beautiful but temperamental instrument the flute
Similar:
undependable; unreliable (not worthy of reliance or trust)
Context examples
The complex of all the attributes—behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental—that characterize a unique individual.
(Personality, NCI Thesaurus)
Both men had lost hope—Johnson, because of temperamental despondency; Leach, because he had beaten himself out in the vain struggle and was exhausted.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
I am too classical, not enough up-to-date in the interpretative branches of science, and I can only plead the disadvantages of my education and a temperamental slothfulness that prevents me from doing the work.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Not that I—a confirmed and, as Furuseth phrased it, a temperamental idealist—was to be compelled; but that Wolf Larsen stormed the last strongholds of my faith with a vigour that received respect, while not accorded conviction.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
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