Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Infamous by way of being extremely wicked.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Wicked in the extreme; heinous; abominable; atrociously sinful or villainous; detestably vile.
- Synonyms Nefarious, Execrable, Flagitious, Enormous, Villainous, Abominable, Horrible, atrocious, infamous, iniquitous, impious, dreadful, detestable. The first seven words characterize extreme wickedness. As with the words under atrocious, when loosely used they approach each other in meaning; hence only their primary meanings will be indicated here: nefarious, unspeakably wicked, impious; execrable, worthy of execration or cursing, utterly hateful; flagitious, proceeding from burning desire (as lust), grossly or brutally wicked or vile, enormous, not common in this sense except with a strong noun, as enormous wickedness, but sometimes meaning wicked beyond common measure; villainous, worthy of a villain, greatly criminal or capable of great crimes; abominable, loathsome in wickedness, the object of a religious detestation; horrible, exciting horror, mental agitation, or shrinking; shocking: it is less common as applied to moral conduct, See abandoned, atrocious, criminal, and irreligious.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Wicked in the extreme; abominable; iniquitous; atrociously villainous; execrable; detestably vile.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. extremely wicked
Etymologies
- Latin nefārius, from nefās, crime, transgression : ne-, not; see ne in Indo-European roots + fās, divine law; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“In a written statement, President Jonathan said the group, basking in what he called their nefarious success in Jos on Christmas Eve, once again knifed at the heartstrings of a nation celebrating New Year's Eve with this evil and wicked attack.”
“This is what we call the nefarious voting tendency called, "In Hop Step".”
Fineman: McCain Wouldn't Approve Of His Own Campaign's Message
“MCINTYRE: Gates had already withstood a flurry of broadsides from committee chairman and ardent war critic Robert Byrd, who railed against the cost of what he called the nefarious infernal war in Iraq.”
“An official that these sources say has been involved in what they call nefarious activities against the United States.”
“A little further down you used the word nefarious, which is one of my favorite words, but I might not have used it in a story on the radio.”
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani held a press conference exposing what he characterized as a nefarious cult - hoopla that ended with a whimper as the Village Voice, The New York Times, Newsday, and other papers reported that NatlFed seemed to have never actually done anything.”
“University scientists who have signed petitions demanding that BPA be banned insist nothing nefarious is going on here, it just happens that the studies that don't find problems administer BPA the way humans take it and those that find problems involve injecting rats, and I believe them.”
“Something which bugs me about Cap & Trade, which makes me think it must be really nefarious, is that there is a simple way to reduce fuel use.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » New Climate Video: Catastrophe Denied
“I don't want a Government that is corrupt, lies and moves in nefarious ways.”
Poll: Majority of Democrats want Clinton-Obama battle to continue
“I hereby bequeath you my successory in nefarious deeds; - p”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nefarious’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 314 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( etymology )
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 837 more...
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The Request Line
This is the place to add words you'd like Charles Harrington Elster to pronounce for you!
swingeing, affiant, dahlia, hydrangea, re, clematis, Nabokov, casu marzu, schadenfreudgeon, nefarious, mewl, manteion and 170 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 414 more...
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People are Scum
words that one may enjoy using to describe other people or their actions
degenerate, reprobate, scapegrace, capricious, sycophant, arbitrary, infernal, abominable, iniquitous, nefarious, philistine, sadistic and 30 more...
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disinformation
words meaning bad or not real data
foo, gobbledygook, spin, blacklist, corrupt, fraudulent, debauched, nefarious, untrustworthy, spam, deranged, mental and 22 more...
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macabre
words associated with the macabre & horror.
ghastly, grisly, culeus, silly, gruesome, horrid, morbid, angelic, shocking, hideous, ghoulish, frightful and 85 more...
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Mikey's favorite words
Here they are. Enjoy.
unconscionable, egregious, thunderfuzzled, magnanimous, stumblepony, somnambulant, torpor, nefarious, beamish, recalcitrant, recidivist, hogshead and 1 more...
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Quacksalvers et al. Nostrum
Bring forth the cathartic illumination on malignant,maniacal,medical,menage a trios and more egotists stymie
culpability, piousfraud, capacitous, rhabdomyolysis, scapula, idiosyncrasy, quiescent, malignant, nefarious, sociological, sociopath, pathogen and 47 more...
yarb When I was about 12 my father, I think out of pure jest, told me this word was pronounced "nef-a-rus", i.e. with three syllables. I was taken in, and argued for this counter-intuitive pronunciation for many years afterwards, without bothering to look it up, always coming across as a pure eejit. Feb 21, 2010
bilby Nefarious was a Burmese dictator who lived at the bottom of the garden. Feb 20, 2010
kd A definition does no good if it uses a very near synonym in the definition. For example, we define 'nefarious' as infamous by way of being extremely wicked. The words 'nefarious' and 'infamous' are very nearly the same in meaning; so if anyone is deeply confused or curious about nefarious, then he or she is of course going to be confused or curious about the 'infamous'. The question is what general characteristics are possessed by all things nefarious. It's one of the fallacies of definition Feb 20, 2010
badnorah I want a screen name with this word! Nov 5, 2009
corylusavellana So delightfully melodramatic... Dec 22, 2008