WICKEDNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does wickedness mean? 

• WICKEDNESS (noun)
  The noun WICKEDNESS has 5 senses:

1. morally objectionable behavior

2. absence of moral or spiritual values

3. the quality of being wicked

4. estrangement from god

5. the quality of being disgusting to the senses or emotions

  Familiarity information: WICKEDNESS used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WICKEDNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Morally objectionable behavior

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

evil; immorality; iniquity; wickedness

Hypernyms ("wickedness" is a kind of...):

evildoing; transgression (the act of transgressing; the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wickedness"):

devilry; deviltry (wicked and cruel behavior)

foul play (unfair or dishonest behavior (especially involving violence))

irreverence; violation (a disrespectful act)

sexual immorality (the evil ascribed to sexual acts that violate social conventions)

Derivation:

wicked (morally bad in principle or practice)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Absence of moral or spiritual values

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

dark; darkness; wickedness

Context example:

the powers of darkness

Hypernyms ("wickedness" is a kind of...):

condition; status (a state at a particular time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wickedness"):

foulness (disgusting wickedness and immorality)

Derivation:

wicked (morally bad in principle or practice)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The quality of being wicked

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

nefariousness; ugliness; vileness; wickedness

Hypernyms ("wickedness" is a kind of...):

evil; evilness (the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wickedness"):

filthiness (moral corruption or pollution)

enormity (the quality of extreme wickedness)

Derivation:

wicked (morally bad in principle or practice)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Estrangement from god

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

sin; sinfulness; wickedness

Hypernyms ("wickedness" is a kind of...):

unrighteousness (failure to adhere to moral principles)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wickedness"):

mark of Cain (the mark that God set upon Cain now refers to a person's sinful nature)

Derivation:

wicked (having committed unrighteous acts)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The quality of being disgusting to the senses or emotions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

loathsomeness; lousiness; repulsiveness; sliminess; vileness; wickedness

Context example:

the vileness of his language surprised us

Hypernyms ("wickedness" is a kind of...):

distastefulness; odiousness; offensiveness (the quality of being offensive)

Derivation:

wicked (highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust)

 Context examples 

Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He acquired a reputation for wickedness amongst the man-animals themselves.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

There was, it would seem, great kindness as well as great wickedness in this world, of which he had heard so little that was good.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I say that these monstrous laws of yours will bring a curse upon the land—God will not let such wickedness endure.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Gentlemen, I wish you a good day, and hoping you and your families will also see your wickedness, and amend!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I talked to her repeatedly in the most serious manner, representing to her all the wickedness of what she had done, and all the unhappiness she had brought on her family.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Now, that bird, he would say, is, maybe, two hundred years old, Hawkins—they live forever mostly; and if anybody's seen more wickedness, it must be the devil himself.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

There, sit down, and think over your wickedness.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)