wicked
Usage
What are other ways to say wicked?
Wicked implies willful and determined doing of what is very wrong: a wicked plan. Evil applies to that which violates or leads to the violation of moral law: evil practices. Ill now appears mainly in certain fixed expressions, with a milder implication than that in evil: ill will; ill-natured. Bad is the broadest and simplest term: a bad man; bad habits.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“He’s just wicked smart. His basketball IQ is crazy.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
Police had fingerprint evidence linking a high-profile councillor to a poison pen letter up to 12 months before he went on to target another politician in a "persistent and wicked" hate mail campaign.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
Combining wicked satire with genuine hope, Randy Boyagoda’s latest novel takes on the financial, moral and cultural crises plaguing modern academia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
"I really rate Andy Burnham for what he's done with Manchester. I think he's wicked," said McCulloch, 22.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
And then to the friars: "You wicked wizards, you won't be able to kidnap that lovely princess and her lovely ladies in waiting!"
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
So here are deviled eggs, made wickeder by breading and deep-frying the whites, crunchy veneer giving way to wobble.
From New York Times ● Mar. 9, 2017
Think of this book as a typical English-village mystery with a wickeder sting.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 7, 2010
That is Day-Lewis' goal and gift: to be so true to his characters that they need never be sentimentalized, made to seem finer, grander, wickeder or more appealing.
From Time Magazine Archive
But what is a child of eight years old to do? and how is he to make head against those who are older and wickeder than he?
From The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... by George Augustus Sala
Society—if there is such a thing—isn't any wickeder than anybody else.
From What Will People Say? A novel by Rupert Hughes
Efforts to make it appear that one of the world’s wickedest men would be in thrall to this milky, recessive nonentity are laughable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
Both characters are deeply, deeply decent people with an instinct towards caretaking and compassion, with an underlying, usually unspoken assumption that, if they’re kind enough, even the wickedest of foes will be disarmed.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2021
Watching scenes of Kingsley not being listened to, or overlooked, or talked to with the wickedest of tongues, it’s impossible to disagree.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 15, 2020
And she saves her wickedest material for condescending Southern liberals determined to help their unfortunate neighbors.
From Washington Post ● May 12, 2015
Miss Throckmorton used to tell us that people who carve things on trees are the wickedest sorts of vandals 'cause they're not only making graffiti, they're hurting living beings too.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Vocabulary lists containing wicked
Oh, No! Synonyms for "Bad"
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Macbeth's "Is this a dagger..." soliloquy
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"Frankenstein" and "How Frankenstein Began"
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