sinister

CEFRB2

/ˈsɪ.nɪ.stə/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
adjective
Suggesting that something bad or dangerous may happen.
02
adjective
Extra detail
Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.

Examples

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Also pronounced

Deep Dive

Extra meanings

In context

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Question 1 · Quick check

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

The word in print, with each source given in full.

All the several ills that visit earth / Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.
1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, (please specify the page)
And in the meanwhile, Society shivered a little feverishly, filled now with the scions of those who had come over with the Jewish and American Conquests. Escutcheons were becoming valueless, how sinister soever the blots and clots upon them.
1922, Michael Arlen, “1/5/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
my Mothers bloud / Runs on the dexter checke, and this ſiniſter / Bounds in my fathers:
c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], column 2
His ſicatrice, with an Embleme of warre, heere on his ſiniſter cheeke;
c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 235
Before the train had stopped he had decorated his sinister shirt-cuff with the inscription, ‘J. P. Huddle, The Warren, Tilfield, near Slowborough.’
1911, Saki, ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis

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From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French senestre, sinistre (“left”), from Latin sinister (“left hand”).