moody
- 1Given to sudden or frequent shifts of temperament and opinion; emotionally unpredictable.
Like a compass needle that keeps spinning to point in new directions.
He's so moody that you never know which opinion he'll hold by lunchtime.
Teenagers often grow moodier as their feelings swing back and forth.
Similarfickle, capricious
Oppositeeven-tempered, stable, steady
Note
A word older than its look suggests. It reads as mood + -y, but it descends from Old English mōdiġ, "brave." Shakespeare already uses the temperamental sense in The Tempest (1610–1611): "How now? moodie?" Fickle and capricious are close neighbors, but they describe shifting choices. Moody describes shifting temper, the weather inside a person. It compares regularly: moodier, moodiest.
- 2
- 3Gloomy, dour, or wrapped in brooding seriousness.
Like the heavy stillness just before a thunderstorm breaks.
The film's moody lighting gave every scene a sense of dread.
His moody, brooding silence filled the whole room.
Similargloomy, grim, bleak, dark, dreary
Oppositebright, cheerful, sunny
Note
Here the gloom belongs to scenes as readily as to people. Paul Bigland, writing in Rail in 2020, pairs moody skies with filtered sunlight and a view fit for a Turner painting. Applied to skies, lighting or landscape, the word admires a brooding atmosphere rather than complaining about it. That separates it from the sulky meaning, where calling someone moody is rarely a compliment.
- 4Of questionable origin: counterfeit, fake, or stolen.
Like a painting sold as an old master but knocked up last week.
The stall was full of moody handbags passed off as designer brands.
Police seized a van loaded with moody electronics.
Similardodgy
Oppositegenuine, authentic, legitimate
Note
British slang from the world of market stalls and back-of-a-van deals. Garry McCarthy and Paula Harding's Tribute to a Hero (2023) sets moody goods beside dodgy suits on the streets of Peckham, and dodgy is its nearest partner. It usually stands before the noun (moody watches, moody gear). Because it shares a spelling with the everyday adjective, keep it to casual speech, where context makes the "fake" reading plain.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English mody, from Old English mōdiġ ("brave"), from Proto-Germanic *mōdagaz ("courageous"). By surface analysis, it is mood + -y.