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unruly

/ʌnˈruːli//ʌnˈruːli/·adjective
difficult to control, order, or discipline; disorderly
Fig. 1 — A marshal points five little figures into a tidy row, and for one proud second they actually hold it.
01Definition

Unruly means resistant to rule — literally so, since it is built straight from 'rule' itself. An unruly thing will not be governed, ordered or held in line: a crowd, a class of children, a head of hair, a debate that keeps boiling over. The word carries a hint of energy rather than malice — unruly things are lively and self-willed, not evil — but they exhaust whoever is trying to keep order. Whatever structure you impose, an unruly subject keeps bulging back out of it.

02In use
  • iThe substitute teacher struggled all afternoon to calm an unruly classroom.
  • iiWithout a firm chair, the meeting grew unruly and tipped over into a frenzy of interruptions.
  • iiiPolice were eventually called in to suppress the increasingly unruly crowd.
03Collocations
  • an unruly crowd
  • unruly behaviour
  • unruly hair
  • an unruly mob
  • an unruly class

Family unruliness (noun)

04Relations

=disorderly, unmanageable, rowdy, undisciplined, wayward

≠orderly, docile, compliant, disciplined

06TOEFL & IELTS

A vivid descriptive adjective for Speaking and Writing about crowds, behaviour and even hair. Strong collocations: an unruly crowd / mob / class / child, and the fixed 'unruly hair'. Note the spelling — no 'e' before the -ly (unruly, not unrulely) — and the stress on the long middle syllable: un-ROO-lee.

07Asked
What does 'unruly hair' mean?
Hair that won't stay where it is put — springing up, frizzing, refusing a comb. It is the word's most common everyday collocation, and it works by the same logic as an unruly crowd: something lively that resists all attempts to order it. The image is gently comic, not critical — unruly hair has a will of its own, which is exactly the word's core idea in miniature.
What does unruly mean?
Hard to control, order, or discipline — resistant to rule, which is literally what the word is built from. An unruly crowd, class, or head of hair will not be held in line. The tone is energy, not evil: unruly things are lively and self-willed rather than malicious. The scene above is the whole spirit — figures pointed into a tidy row who bolt out of it the instant the order lands, having understood it perfectly and declined.
What is the difference between unruly and disorderly?
Unruly is about resisting control — lively and self-willed, refusing to be governed. Disorderly is about lacking order — messy, or, in legal use, causing a public disturbance ('disorderly conduct'). An unruly child won't follow the rules; a disorderly room simply has no arrangement. Unruly implies a will that pushes back; disorderly can be mere chaos with no will behind it at all.
Where does 'unruly' come from?
Straight from rule: un- ('not') plus an old adjective ruly, meaning 'obedient, orderly' — literally 'able to be ruled'. Ruly has all but vanished from modern English, surviving only inside its negative, which is why unruly can look like it has no positive form. But the root is right there on the surface: an unruly thing is one that will not be ruled.
How do you spell and pronounce unruly?
un-ROO-lee — three syllables, stress on the long middle one, rhyming with 'newly' after the un-. The spelling trap is the ending: it is -ly with no e before it, so unruly, never 'unrulely'. The base ruly already ends in -ly, and unruly just adds the prefix, so no extra letters join in.