Thesaurus
rough
adjective
Synonyms and Antonyms of ROUGH
1
covered with or as if with hair <a face rough with a couple days' worth of beard>
Synonyms bristly, brushy, cottony, fleecy, furred, furry, hirsute, rough, shaggy, silky, unshorn, woolly (also wooly)
2
marked by bursts of destructive force or intense activity <rough waters that made sailing our sloop a little risky>
Synonyms bang-bang, blood-and-guts, convulsive, cyclonic, explosive, ferocious, fierce, furious, hammer-and-tongs, hot, knock-down, drag-out (or knock-down-and-drag-out), paroxysmal, rabid, rough, stormy, tempestuous, tumultuous, turbulent, volcanic
Related Words barbarous, brutal, savage, vicious; antagonistic, hostile; aggressive, assertive, bellicose, belligerent, combative, contentious, gladiatorial, pugnacious, quarrelsome, truculent; combustible, volatile; agitated, frantic, frenzied, mad; cataclysmal (or cataclysmic), destructive, ruinous
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not having a level or smooth surface <a rough board can give you splinters>
Synonyms broken, bumpy, coarse, irregular, jagged, lumpy, pebbly, ragged, rough, roughened, rugged, scraggy
Related Words lopsided, unbalanced; inexact, unaligned; rutted, rutty, undulating, undulatory, wavy; pitted, pocked; knobbly, knobby, knurled, knurly, nubbly, nubby; burred, harsh, sandpapery, scraggly, scratchy; nonuniform
5
requiring considerable physical or mental effort <a forensics expert who willingly takes on rough assignments>
Synonyms arduous, Augean, backbreaking, challenging, demanding, difficult, effortful, exacting, formidable, grueling (or gruelling), heavy, hellacious, herculean, killer, laborious, moiling, murderous, pick-and-shovel, rigorous, rough, rugged, severe, stiff, strenuous, sweaty, tall, testing, toilsome, tough, uphill
Related Words abstract, abstruse, complex, complicated, elusive, hairy, insoluble, intricate, involved, knotty, opaque, problematic (also problematical), recondite, serious, spiny, stubborn, thorny, ticklish, tricky; bruising, burdensome, exhausting, labored, onerous, oppressive, stressful, taxing, tight, trying; annoying, bothersome, distressing, irksome, troublesome, vexatious; grievous, grim, strict, stringent; brutal, cruel, inhuman, painful
Near Antonyms achievable, clear, doable, elementary, manageable, uncomplicated; comforting, gentle, painless, relaxed, smooth, soothing; accessible, friendly, idiotproof, user-friendly
6
difficult to endure <I've had a rough time of it since I lost my job>
Synonyms bitter, brutal, burdensome, cruel, excruciating, grievous, grim, hard, hardhanded, heavy, inhuman, murderous, onerous, oppressive, rough, rugged, searing, severe, stiff, tough, trying
Related Words austere, bleak, comfortless, discomforting, forbidding, inhospitable, spartan, uncomfortable; biting, inclement, intemperate, wild; rigorous, strict, stringent; agonizing, heartbreaking, heartrending, painful, wretched; crushing, grinding, overwhelming, wearing; insufferable, insupportable, intolerable, unbearable, unendurable; harrowing, tortuous; bad, disagreeable, hostile, unfriendly, unpleasant
7
harsh and threatening in manner or appearance <the rough faces of hardened criminals who had spent most of their lives behind bars>
Synonyms austere, dour, fierce, flinty, forbidding, gruff, intimidating, lowering (also louring), rough, rugged, severe, stark, steely, stern, ungentle
Related Words bleak, cold, hostile, inhospitable, inimical, unfriendly, unsympathetic; adamant, bound, determined, firm, intent, purposeful, resolute, resolved, steadfast, unflinching; fixed, hard, hardened, hardheaded, immovable, implacable, inflexible, ironhanded, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, rigid, self-willed, set, stiff, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, willful (or wilful); immutable, unchangeable; black, cheerless, dark, gloomy, glum, joyless, melancholic, moody, morose, sulky, sullen, surly; brooding, grave, humorless, melancholy, serious, sober, sobersided, solemn, somber (or sombre), staid, unsmiling, weighty
8
hastily or roughly constructed <made a rough camp as darkness fell over the forest>
Synonyms artless, clumsy, crude, jerry-built, jerry-rigged, jury-rigged, rough, rough-and-ready, rough-and-tumble, rough-hewn, unrefined
Related Words defective, faulty, flawed, imperfect; imprecise, inexact; inartistic, undressed, unfinished, unpolished, unworked; amateur, amateurish, inexpert, unprofessional, unskilled, unskillful; primitive, rudimentary; unshaped, unshapen
Near Antonyms faultless, finished, flawless, meticulous, perfect, perfected, polished, well-done; adept, adroit, dexterous (also dextrous), expert, masterful, masterly, neat, practiced (also practised), skillful, workmanlike; artful, artistic, sophisticated; exact, precise
Antonyms refined
9
lacking in refinement or good taste <he learned polite words to replace the rough language he had known in the slums>
Synonyms common, crass, crude, gross, ill-bred, illiberal [archaic], incult, insensible, low, lowbred, lowbrow, raffish, rough, rough-hewn, roughneck, rude, rugged, tasteless, uncouth, uncultivated, uncultured, unpolished, unrefined, vulgar
Related Words boorish, churlish, cloddish, clownish, loutish, ungentlemanly; clumsy, lubberly, lumpish, oafish; inconsiderate, indelicate, insensitive, thoughtless; countrified (also countryfied), provincial, rustic (also rustical), unsophisticated; graceless, inelegant, tacky; animallike, barbaric, barbarous, uncivilized; mannerless, unmannered, unmannerly
Near Antonyms aristocratic, courtly, patrician; elegant, graceful, restrained; considerate, gracious, sensitive, thoughtful; citified, sophisticated, urbane
Antonyms civilized, cultivated, cultured, genteel, polished, refined, smooth, tasteful, ultrarefined, well-bred
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marked by turmoil or disturbance especially of natural elements <after a rough week on the high seas, we were happy to sail through the gulf's more tranquil waters>
Related Words native; uninhabited, unpeopled, unsettled; overgrown, spontaneous, untended; waste; undeveloped; desolate, forlorn, howling
Antonyms cultivated, tamed
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