evil

CEFRC1

/ˈiːvəl/

adjective · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Very bad or morally wrong.

  2. 02

    noun

    Great moral wickedness or harm.

Examples

  • Police described the killer as ‘a desperate and evil man’.

  • Do you know good from evil?

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • [ˈɪi̯vəl] ~ [ˈɪi̯vl̩]

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Morally corrupt.

  2. Unpleasant, foul (of odor, taste, mood, weather, etc.).

  3. Intending to harm; malevolent.

More examples

In context

  • That was an evil bunny.

  • If something is evil, it is never mandatory.

  • an evil plot to brainwash and even kill innocent people

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The villain's blank plan aimed to destroy the entire city with a bomb.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Middle English yvel, evel, ivel, uvel, from Old English yfel, from Proto-West Germanic *ubil, from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂up(h₁)élos, a deverbal derivative of *h₂wep(h₁)-, *h₂wop(h₁)- (“treat badly”). See -le for the supposed suffix. Alternatively from *upélos (“evil”, literally “going over or beyond (acceptable limits)”), from Proto-Indo-European *upo, *h₃ewp- (“down, up, over”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch euvel (“evil”), German übel (“bad, evil”), German Low German övel (“evil”), Luxembourgish iwwel (“queasy, nauseous; bad”), Gothic 𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌻𐍃 (ubils, “bad, evil”). Compare Old Irish fel (“bad, evil”), from Proto-Celtic *uɸelos, and Hittite 𒄷𒉿𒀊𒍣 (huwa...