Word · adjective · also informal adjective or regional adverb in other senses · C1 · Neutral to literary in the evil sense · strong moral judgment
wicked
Morally very bad, cruel, or deliberately harmful.
zao; opak; pokvaren; zloban
Memory scene
Wicked in a fairy tale points to chosen cruelty, not merely a mistake: the character knows the harm and embraces it.
How it sounds
WIK-id
Stress the first syllable; the ending forms a separate syllable: WIK-id, not wicked as one syllable.
Build the sentence
wicked + person/act/plan · it was wicked of someone to + verb
Use it
The novel’s ruler devised a wicked plan to punish families who questioned him.
The plan is presented as deliberately cruel, not simply ineffective or unpleasant.
It was wicked of them to leave the injured animal without help.
The of someone to frame makes a forceful moral judgment about an action.
Watch out
Context can reverse the meaning: informal wicked can mean excellent. In New England and some other informal US speech, wicked can also mean very, as in wicked cold; British informal use also has positive senses. Do not assume every occurrence means evil.
Nearby language
The closest strong moral word; evil is often broader and more solemn, while wicked is common in stories and judgments of conduct.
Focuses specifically on causing suffering, without necessarily judging the person as morally corrupt overall.
Much milder and often used for children’s bad behavior rather than serious moral wrongdoing.
Make it yours
Lik iz priče namerno kažnjava nevine porodice samo zato što su mu se suprotstavile.