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Nefarious vs Unspeakable - What's the difference?

nefarious | unspeakable | Synonyms |

Nefarious is a synonym of unspeakable.


As adjectives the difference between nefarious and unspeakable

is that nefarious is sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics while unspeakable is incapable of being spoken or uttered; unutterable; ineffable; inexpressible.

nefarious

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.
  • * 1828 , , The Red Rover , ch. 2:
    • "If the vessel be no fair-trading slaver, nor a common cruiser of his Majesty, it is as tangible as the best man's reasoning, that she may be neither more nor less than the ship of that nefarious pirate the Red Rover."
  • * 1877 , , The Life of Cicero , ch. 9:
    • Mommsen . . . declares that Catiline in particular was "one of the most nefarious' men in that ' nefarious age. His villanies belong to the criminal records, not to history."
  • * 1921 , , The Indiscretions of Archie , ch. 26:
    • The fact that the room was still in darkness made it obvious that something nefarious was afoot. Plainly there was dirty work in preparation at the cross-roads.
  • * 2009 Oct. 14, Monica Davey, " Fact Checker Finds Falsehoods in Remarks," New York Times (retrieved 12 May 2014):
    • “I try to let everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington.”

    Usage notes

    * Commonly used in contexts involving villainous plans, conspiracies, or actions, as in: :* 1909 , , The Lady of the Shroud , book 7: ::: The whole nefarious scheme was one of the "put-up jobs" which are part of the dirty work of a certain order of statecraft.

    Synonyms

    * evil, iniquitous, sinister, underhanded, vile * See also

    Derived terms

    * nefariously * nefariousness

    References

    *

    unspeakable

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Incapable of being spoken or uttered; unutterable; ineffable; inexpressible.
  • * 1855-1882 , , book xv,
    • The endless pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows.
  • Unfit or not permitted to be spoken or described.
  • * 1916 , , A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man , ch. 3,
    • The miser will remember his hoard of gold, the robber his ill-gotten wealth, the angry and revengeful and merciless murderers their deeds of blood and violence in which they revelled, the impure and adulterous the unspeakable and filthy pleasures in which they delighted.
  • Extremely bad or objectionable.
    • an unspeakable fool
    an unspeakable play
  • * 1926 , ,
    • Yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty on the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * unspeakably * unspeakableness

    References

    * * * * " unspeakable" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002) * " unspeakable" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007) * * " unspeakable" at Rhymezone (Datamuse, 2006). * Oxford English Dictionary , second edition (1989) ----