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What is the difference between evil and wicked?

evil | wicked |

Wicked is a synonym of evil.



As adjectives the difference between evil and wicked

is that evil is intending to harm; malevolent while wicked is evil or mischievous by nature.

As nouns the difference between evil and wicked

is that evil is moral badness; wickedness; malevolence; the forces or behaviors that are the opposite or enemy of good while wicked is people who are wicked..

As an adverb wicked is

very, extremely.

As a verb wicked is

past tense of wick.

evil

English

Adjective

  • Intending to harm; malevolent.
    • Do you think that companies that engage in animal testing are evil ?
  • Morally corrupt.
    • an evil plot to kill innocent people
  • * Shakespeare
    • Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, / When death's approach is seen so terrible.
  • Unpleasant. (rfex)
  • Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy xxii. 19
    • He hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The owl shrieked at thy birth — an evil sign.
  • * Milton
    • Evil news rides post, while good news baits.
  • (obsolete) Having harmful qualities; not good; worthless or deleterious.
    • an evil''' beast; an '''evil''' plant; an '''evil crop
  • * Bible, Matthew vii. 18
    • A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
  • (computing, programming, slang) undesirable; harmful; bad practice
    • Global variables are evil ; storing processing context in object member variables allows those objects to be reused in a much more flexible way.

    Synonyms

    * nefarious * malicious * malevolent * See also

    Antonyms

    * good

    Derived terms

    * evil eye * evil laugh * evil laughter * evilly * evil-minded * Evil One * evil twin * evilness

    Noun

    (wikipedia evil)
  • Moral badness; wickedness; malevolence; the forces or behaviors that are the opposite or enemy of good.
  • * Bible, (Ecclesiastes). ix. 3
    • The heart of the sons of men is full of evil .
  • * , chapter=16
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=The preposterous altruism too!
  • Anything which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; anything which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; injury; mischief; harm.
  • * (John Milton)
    • evils which our own misdeeds have wrought
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • The evil that men do lives after them.
  • (obsolete) A malady or disease; especially in the phrase king's evil (scrofula).
  • * (Shakespeare)
  • * Addison
    • He [Edward the Confessor] was the first that touched for the evil .

    Antonyms

    * good

    Derived terms

    * axis of evil * evildoer * king's evil * lesser evil * necessary evil * poll evil

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    *

    wicked

    English

    Etymology 1

    1225-75 (etyl) wikked, wikke, an alteration of wicke, adjectival use of (etyl)

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Evil or mischievous by nature.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.}}
  • (slang)  Excellent; awesome; masterful; deeply satisfying.
    • Usage notes
    * Nouns to which "wicked" is often applied: witch, person, man, woman, angel, deed, act, pleasure, delight, game, way, night, word.
    Synonyms
    * (evil or mischievous) evil, immoral, malevolent, malicious, nefarious, twisted, villainous, See also * awesome, bad, cool, dope, excellent, far out, groovy, hot, rad, See also
    Derived terms
    * wickedly * wickedness * wicked tongue

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (slang, New England, British) Very, extremely.
    • The band we went to see the other night was wicked loud!
    Synonyms
    * hella, helluv (primarily Northern California slang )

    Noun

  • People who are wicked.Oxford dictionary [http://www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/dictionary/wicked_2].

    • Etymology 2

    See (wick)

    Verb

    (head)
  • (wick)

    • Adjective

    (-)
  • Having a wick.
    • a two-wicked lamp
  • (British, dialect, chiefly, Yorkshire) Infested with maggots.

    • References

    English degree adverbs English heteronyms English intensifiers