HOW TO PRONOUNCE
evil
/ˈivəl/
Press play to hear how to pronounce evil.
American Pronunciation Guide · 1:05
Watch on YouTube ↗
Watch on YouTube ↗
What does evil mean?
adjective
- Intending to harm; malevolent.
- Morally corrupt.
- Unpleasant, foul (of odor, taste, mood, weather, etc.).
More meanings (9)
adjective
- Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous.
- (slang) Undesirable; harmful; bad practice.
- (obsolete) Having harmful qualities; not good; worthless or deleterious.
noun
- Moral badness; wickedness; malevolence; the forces or behaviors that are the opposite or enemy of good.
- Something which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; something which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; harm; injury; mischief.
- (obsolete) A malady or disease; especially in combination, as in king's evil, colt evil.
adverb
- (obsolete) wickedly, evilly, iniquitously
- (obsolete) injuriously, harmfully; in a damaging way.
- (obsolete) badly, poorly; in an insufficient way.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈivəl/
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
But a resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible.
Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other.
More book examples (3)
“I know that your intentions are evil,” said Miss Pross, “and you may depend upon it, I’ll hold my own against them.”
Those many had not dared to do that evil If the first that did th’ edict infringe Had answered for his deed.
In those days the world in general was more ignorant of good and evil by forty years than it is at present.