Word.ws English Dictionary

axis of evil

axis of evil noun: a group of states accused by George W. Bush of sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction, originally defined as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.

Noun

axis of evil (plural axes of evil)

  1. A group of states accused by George W. Bush of sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction, originally defined as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.
    • I discussed Iraq with Gerhard during his visit to the White House on January 31, 2002. In my State of the Union address two days earlier, I had outlined the threats posed by Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten...2010, George W. Bush, Decision Points, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 233
    • Communist China is on a mission for dominance. At the helm of the New Axis of Evil, China has indicated they will invade independent countries and destroy democratic leadership to achieve that end. My recent visit to Taiwan made it abundantly clear that the leaders in Taiwan want the United States...2022 September 9, Marsha Blackburn, “We must stand with Taiwan”, in Tullahoma News, Tullahoma, Tennessee, archived from the original on 11 Sep 2022
  2. An anomaly in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background as the result of a preferential axis which may have shaped the development of the universe.
    Synonyms:
    AOE

axis of evil meaning in Arabic, Indonesian, Persian and Thai

axis of evil in Arabic

states supposedly sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction
مِحْوَر اَلشَّرّ miḥwar aš-šarr

axis of evil in Indonesian

states supposedly sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction
poros kejahatan

axis of evil in Persian

states supposedly sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction
محور شرارت mehvar-e šarârat

axis of evil in Thai

states supposedly sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction
แกนแห่งความชั่วร้าย
More languagesFewer languages
axis of evil in Vietnamese
trục ma quỷ, liên minh ma quỷ, liên minh diệt vong

Examples of axis of evil in a sentence

  • “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world,” I said.2010, George W. Bush, Decision Points, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 233:
  • At the helm of the New Axis of Evil, China has indicated they will invade independent countries and destroy democratic leadership to achieve that end.2022 September 9, Marsha Blackburn, “We must stand with Taiwan”, in Tullahoma News, Tullahoma, Tennessee, archived from the original on 11...

Synonyms of axis of evil

Forms of axis of evil

pluralaxes of evil

Origin of axis of evil

Coined by American political commentator David Frum in 2002 and first used publicly by President George W. Bush in the 2002 State of the Union Address. Possibly from a historical analogy to the German-Italian-Japanese axis. Extended to astrophysics by Portuguese scientist João Magueijo in 2005.

Questions about axis of evil

What does axis of evil mean?
Axis of evil means a group of states accused by George W. Bush of sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction, originally defined as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.
What is axis of evil in Arabic?
Axis of evil in Arabic is مِحْوَر اَلشَّرّ (miḥwar aš-šarr). See Axis of evil meaning in Arabic.
How do you use axis of evil in a sentence?
“States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world,” I said.
What part of speech is axis of evil?
Axis of evil is a noun.
What is the plural of axis of evil?
The plural of axis of evil is axes of evil.

Words near axis of evil in the dictionary

  1. axis cylinder
  2. axis cylinders
  3. axis deer
  4. axis mundi
  5. Axis of Epstein
  6. axis of evil
  7. axis of resistance
  8. axis of rotation
  9. axis of symmetry
  10. axis of upheaval
  11. Axis power

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: axis of evil (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-axis of evil.wav.

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