Adjacent Words

nefarious definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: extremely wicked; "nefarious schemes"; "a villainous plot"; "a villainous band of thieves" [syn: nefarious, villainous]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin nefarius, from nefas crime, from ne- not + fas right, divine law; perhaps akin to Greek themis law, tithenai to place — more at do Date: circa 1609 flagrantly wicked or impious ; evil Synonyms: see vicious • nefariously adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. wicked; iniquitous. Derivatives: nefariously adv. nefariousness n. Etymology: L nefarius f. nefas wrong f. ne- not + fas divine law

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Nefarious Ne*fa"ri*ous, a. [L. nefarius, fr. nefas crime, wrong; ne not + fas divine law; akin to fari to speak. See No, adv., and Fate.] Wicked in the extreme; abominable; iniquitous; atrociously villainous; execrable; detestably vile. Syn: Iniquitous; detestable; horrible; heinious; atrocious; infamous; impious. See Iniquitous. -- Ne*fa"ri*ous*ly, adv. -- Ne*fa"ri*ous*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you describe an activity as nefarious, you mean that it is wicked and immoral. (LITERARY) Why make a whole village prisoner if it was not to some nefarious purpose? ADJ: usu ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Abominable, atrocious, detestable, execrable, iniquitous, scandalous, wicked, infamous, villanous, heinous, flagitious, very wicked, horrible, dreadful, vile.

Moby Thesaurus

abject, abominable, arrant, atrocious, awful, bad, base, beastly, beggarly, beneath contempt, black, blamable, blameworthy, brutal, cheesy, contemptible, corrupt, criminal, crummy, damnable, dark, debased, degenerate, degraded, deplorable, depraved, despicable, detestable, dire, dirty, disgraceful, disgusting, dreadful, egregious, enormous, evil, execrable, fetid, filthy, flagitious, flagrant, foul, fulsome, glaring, grave, grievous, gross, hateful, heinous, horrible, horrid, improper, infamous, iniquitous, knavish, lamentable, little, loathsome, lousy, low, low-down, lumpen, mangy, mean, measly, miscreant, miserable, monstrous, nasty, naughty, noisome, notorious, obnoxious, odious, offensive, outrageous, paltry, peccant, perverse, petty, pitiable, pitiful, poky, poor, putrid, rank, regrettable, reprehensible, reprobate, reptilian, repulsive, rotten, sad, scabby, scandalous, schlock, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, shabby, shameful, shocking, shoddy, sinful, small, sordid, squalid, terrible, too bad, unclean, unforgivable, unmentionable, unpardonable, unspeakable, unworthy, vicious, vile, villainous, wicked, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched, wrong