devil

Syllables: dev·il/ˈdɛvəl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

dated[ˈdɛvɪl]

devil proper noun: the chief devil; Satan. Also the ellipsis of devil seam.

Image: Gustave Doré, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun (1)

the devil

The chief devil; Satan.

Synonyms:

Aduwallah, Adversary, Al-Shaytaan, Antichrist, archfiend, Ash-Shaytan, Azazel, Beast, Beelzebub, bogey

Antonyms:

God

Noun

devil (plural devils)

An evil creature, the objectification of a hostile and destructive force.

Synonyms:

demon

Antonyms:

angel, god
A man with red or orange skin and a pair of horns on his head, a pointed goatee, and a long tail, who carries a pitchfork, represents evil, and is portrayed to children as a boogeyman who punishes bad behavior.
The bad part of the conscience; the opposite to the angel.
- The devil in me wants to let him suffer.
Antonyms:

angel, conscience
A wicked or naughty person, or one who harbors reckless, spirited energy, especially in a mischievous way; usually said of a young child.
- Those two kids are devils in a toy store.
Synonyms:

imp, rascal, scamp, scoundrel

Antonyms:

angel, saint
A thing that is awkward or difficult to understand or do.
- That math problem was a devil.
Synonyms:

bastard, bitch, bugger, stinker

Antonyms:

cakewalk, piece of cake
(euphemistic) Hell.
- What in the devil is that?
- What the devil is that?
Synonyms:

deuce, dickens, fuck, heck, hell
A person, especially a man; used to express a particular opinion of him, usually in the phrases poor devil and lucky devil.
- 'Well, I'm damned,' said Bond. 'Of course that old devil M never told me. He just gives one the facts. Never tells one any good news. I suppose he thinks it might influence one's decision to take a case or not.'1954, Ian Fleming, “The Red Carpet”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 8
Synonyms:

bugger, cow, sod
A printer's assistant.
- For he will not leave his listener to dwell upon sorrow when the print office beckons and he can show you what a good little devil he became.2010, Andrea Levy, The Long Song, Tinder Press (2017), page 381
Synonyms:

printer's devil
(India) A poltergeist that haunts printing works.
(Australia, Ireland, UK) A lawyer’s assistant.
A dust devil.
- The formation of tornados and water-spouts is very probably identical with that of dust-storms and "devils," viz., a sudden disturbance of the vertical equilibrium of the atmosphere, where by an upward rush of air is generated, which rapidly becomes spiral.1877, H. F. Blandford, Indian Meteorologist's Vade-mecum, page 140
- There are few sights more appalling than a sandstorm in the desert, the "Zauba'ah" as the Arabs call it. Devils, or pillars of sand, vertical and inclined, measuring a thousand feet high[.]1885, Richard F. Burton, chapter XII, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume I, The Burton Club, page 114 footnote
(dialectal, in-compounds) A barren, unproductive and unused area.
- devil strip

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A dish, as a bone with the meat, broiled and excessively peppered; a grill with Cayenne pepper.
- Men and women busy in baking, broiling, roasting oysters, and preparing devils on the gridiron.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown...
A machine for tearing or cutting rags, cotton, etc., as used in the production of mungo or shoddy.
- The woollen things are torn to pieces by a machine having spiked rollers (termed a devil), cleansed, and the fibre spun with a certain proportion of new wool, the yarn being afterwards woven into the full-bodied but flimsy fabric termed shoddy.1918, Henry J. Spooner, Wealth from Waste: Elimination of Waste A World Problem, George Routledge & Sons, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 200
A Tasmanian devil.
- He removes his food, water, and torch from the pack and then pushes it to the far end of the tent – no devil is going to rip his pack apart tonight.1999, Julia Leigh, The Hunter, Faber & Faber 2012, p. 32
- In the 1800s, for example, workers at a wool company were scared that the devils would attack their sheep.2008, Joyce L. Markovics, Tasmanian Devil: Nighttime Scavenger, page 8
(slang) An endurance event where riders who fall behind are periodically eliminated.

Verb

devil (third-person singular simple present devils, present participle (US) deviling or (UK) devilling, simple past and past participle (US) deviled or (UK) devilled)

To make like a devil; to invest with the character of a devil.
To annoy or bother.

Synonyms:

bedevil, aggravate, annoy, nettle, rankle, ruffle, sting, burn someone's ass, antagonize, bother
(intransitive) To work as a ‘devil’; to work for a lawyer or writer without fee or recognition.
- He did not repeat the scathing estimate of her character by Quatrefages, who at that time spent one afternoon a week devilling at the Consulate, keeping the petty-cash box in order.1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 401
To ghostwrite; to author while working as a ‘devil’.
- Didn't secretaries write the speeches of Parliamentary "big-bugs"? Weren't the opinions of eminent lawyers often written by their juniors, read over and signed? Weren't briefs and pleadings devilled?1922, John Galsworthy, Conscience, page 4
To prepare (food) with spices, making it spicy
- […]; you could watch a buckwheat pancake whirled into existence under your eyes and see fowls' legs devilled, peppered, grilled, and tormented till they lost all semblance of the original Mariposa chicken.1912, Stephen Leacock, “The Hostelry of Mr. Smith”, in Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, page 28
To finely grind (cooked ham or other meat) with spices and condiments.
To prepare (shelled halved boiled eggs, as a sidedish) by removing the yolks, adding condiments and spices to them, and placing that mixture back into (the halved eggs' whites) to be served.
- She's going to devil four dozen eggs for the picnic.
To shred fabric into its fibres for recycling, as in the production of mungo or shoddy.
- Tailors' clippings and remnants of fine woollen goods, such as broadcloth, etc., are devilled and spun into yarn for making cloth of nicer quality, called mungo.1918, Henry J. Spooner, Wealth from Waste: Elimination of Waste A World Problem, George Routledge & Sons, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 200

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Devil

the Devil

The chief devil; Satan.

Synonyms:

Aduwallah, Adversary, Al-Shaytaan, Antichrist, archfiend, Ash-Shaytan, Azazel, Beast, Beelzebub, bogey

Also used as

devil is also the ellipsis of devil seam.

devil meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

devil in Hindi

the devil: the chief devil: शैतान śaitān
evil creature: शैतान śaitān, दानव dānav, राक्षस rākṣas, देव dev, इबलीस iblīs

devil in Marathi

the devil: the chief devil: शैतान śaitān
evil creature: सैतान saitān
wicked or naughty person: शैतान śaitān
euphemistically, with an article: Hell (as an intensifier): शैतानी śaitānī

devil in Urdu

the devil: the chief devil: شَیطان śaitān
evil creature: شَیطان śaitān, اِبْلِیس iblīs

More languagesFewer languages

devil in Bengali: শয়তান śoẏotan, ইবলিশ iboliś, রাক্ষস rakkhoś
devil in Telugu: సైతాను saitānu
devil in Malayalam: ചെകുത്താൻ cekuttāṉ
devil in Kannada: ದೆವ್ವದ devvada
devil in Punjabi: ਸ਼ੈਤਾਨ śaitān
devil in Gujarati: શયતાન śayatān
devil in Odia: ଶୟତାନ śayatāna
devil in Sanskrit: पाप्मन् pāpman, पापीयस् pāpīyas, राक्षस rākṣasa, दानव dānava
devil in Sinhala: යක්ෂයා yakṣayā
devil in Assamese: চৈতান soitan
devil in Nepali: शैतान śaitān
devil in Pashto: شيطان šaytān, ابليس eblis
devil in Arabic: اَلشَّيْطَان aš-šayṭān, إِبْلِيس ʔiblīs, شَيْطَان šayṭān
devil in Malay: iblis, syaitan
devil in Indonesian: iblis, syaitan, setan
devil in Persian: اَهْریمَن ahrēman, شَیْطَان šaytān, شِیْطان šeytân, دیو dēw
devil in Thai: ซาตาน saa-dtaan, ปีศาจ bpii-sàat, มาร maan
devil in Vietnamese: ma, quỷ, ác ma, ác thần
devil in Myanmar: ငရဲမင်း nga.rai:mang:, နတ်ဆိုး nathcui:, ငရဲသား nga.rai:sa:, ယမမင်း ya.ma.mang:
Dhivehi: ޝައިޠާނާ šaiţānā

Examples of devil in a sentence

She is having a devil of a time fixing it.
You can go to the devil for all I care.

All 40 example sentences with devil

Synonyms of devil

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Antonyms

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Forms of devil

Proper noun
alternative form	Devil
alternative pronunciation-spelling	davil
alternative pronunciation-spelling	debbil
alternative form (archaic, dialectal)	diuel
alternative form (archaic, dialectal)	divel
alternative form (archaic, dialectal)	divil
alternative form (obsolete)	deuill
alternative form (obsolete)	devel
alternative form (obsolete)	devell
alternative form (obsolete)	devill
alternative form (obsolete)	diuell
Noun
plural	devils
Verb
third-person singular present	devils
present participle US	deviling
present participle UK	devilling
past participle US	deviled
past US	deviled
past participle UK	devilled
past UK	devilled

Plural of devil: devils

Origin of devil

From Middle English devil, devel, deovel, from Old English dēofol, from Proto-West Germanic *diubul, from Latin diabolus, ultimately from Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos, “false accuser, slanderer”), also as "Satan" (in Jewish/Christian usage, translating Biblical Hebrew שָׂטָן (śātān)), from διαβάλλω (diabállō, “to slander”), literally “to throw across”, from διά (diá, “through, across”) + βάλλω (bállō, “throw”). The Old English word was probably adopted under influence of Latin diabolus (itself from the Greek). Other Germanic languages adopted the word independently: compare Saterland Frisian Düüwel (“devil”), West Frisian duvel (“devil”), Dutch duivel, duvel (“devil”), German Low German Düvel (“devil”), German Teufel (“devil”), Bavarian Teifl (“devil”), Danish djævel (“devil”), Swedish djävul (“devil”) (older: djefvul, Old Swedish diævul, Old Norse djǫfull). Doublet of diable, diablo, and diabolus.

See devil.

Words formed from devil

Phrases with devil

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Words that rhyme with devil

Questions about devil

What does devil mean?: Devil means the chief devil; Satan.
What is devil in Hindi?: Devil in Hindi is शैतान (śaitān), दानव (dānav), राक्षस (rākṣas). See Devil meaning in Hindi.
How do you use devil in a sentence?: She is having a devil of a time fixing it.
What part of speech is devil?: Devil can be a proper noun, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce devil?: Devil is pronounced /ˈdɛvəl/.

Words near devil in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: devil (page history and authors); Devil (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-devil.ogg.

Cite this entry: “devil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/devil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.