Word.ws English Dictionary

balefulest

balefulest is the superlative form of baleful.

Meaning of baleful

Adjective

baleful (comparative more baleful, superlative most baleful)

  1. Portending evil; ominous.
    • The street-lamps burn amid the baleful glooms,
      Amidst the soundless solitudes immense
      Of ranged mansions dark and still as tombs.1873, James Thomson (B.V.), The City of Dreadful Night
  2. (obsolete) Miserable, wretched, distressed, suffering.
    • Thou balefull Messenger, out of my sight:1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. (obsolete) Deadly, mortal.
    • With balefull weedes, and precious Iuiced flowers, / The earth that's Natures mother, is her Tombe,c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    Synonyms:
    fatal, lethal, terminal

Questions about balefulest

What is balefulest the superlative form of?
Balefulest is the superlative form of baleful.

Words near balefulest in the dictionary

  1. baleeting
  2. baleets
  3. balefire
  4. balefires
  5. baleful
  6. balefulest
  7. balefull
  8. balefullest
  9. balefully
  10. balefulness
  11. balei

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: balefulest (page history and authors); baleful (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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