evil

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Morally very bad; wanting to harm others.

   In the story, an evil king ruled the kingdom with cruelty.

2. 2
   noun

   The quality of being morally wrong; great wickedness.

   Many religions try to explain the origin of evil in the world.

3. 3
   noun

   Something that causes harm, suffering, or misfortune.

   Poverty is one of the great evils of our society.

Common collocations

• evil spirit Adjective + noun

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…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images