adj. 1
Intending to harm; malevolent.
an evil plot to brainwash and even kill innocent people
n. 1
Moral badness; wickedness; malevolence; the forces or behaviors that are the opposite or enemy of good.
The evils of society include murder and theft.

Related words

Word family: evilfare evility evilly evil-minded evilness evildoing evilworker
Phrases: evil eye evil twin evil turn king's evil evil day evil genius evil hour evil laugh

Forms

Plural: evils → wickednesses, mischiefs, iniquities, sins…

Choose the right word

Evil, Evils, Mischief, Harm or Wrong?

Evil commonly suggests suffering or sin, or both; as, the evils of poverty, the social evil. Mischief is disarrangement, trouble, or harm usually caused by some voluntary agent, with or without injurious intent; a child's thoughtless sport may do great mischief; wrong is harm done with evil intent.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

sinister Gustavo's tone and mannerisms were really sinister.
malevolent This world is controlled by malevolent forces.
devilish Why did Yuri decide to join this devilish trio?
diabolic Tom masterminded a diabolic plot to kill his wife.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
evil		rising
sinister		rising
malevolent		rising
devilish		rising
diabolic		steady

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: bad¹, ill¹, sin¹
4 letters: dark¹, vice¹, harm¹, vile¹
5 letters: wrong¹
6 letters: damage², injury³, wicked², sinful², malice², malign²
7 letters: harmful², vicious², immoral³, demonic³, satanic³, malefic
8 letters: disaster³, sinister³, mischief², calamity⁴, depraved², devilish², iniquity⁴, enormity⁴, villainy, diabolic, superbad, evilness
9 letters: injustice³, detriment³, nefarious⁴, depravity⁴
10 letters: corruption³, misfortune³, diabolical⁵, malevolent⁴, pernicious³, wickedness³, immorality⁵, villainous³
11 letters: abomination⁵, criminality⁵
15 letters: unrighteousness

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (damage² = 2 syllables).