Word.ws English Dictionary

devious

Syllables: de·vi·ous/ˈdiː.vi.əs/

devious adjective: cunning or deceiving, not straightforward or honest, not frank.

Adjective

devious (comparative more devious, superlative most devious)

  1. Cunning or deceiving, not straightforward or honest, not frank.
  2. (archaic, literal) Roundabout, circuitous, deviating from the direct or ordinary route.
    • The wandering Arab never sets his tent
      Within her walls; the Shepherd eyes afar
      Her evil towers, and devious drives his flock.1801, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and...
    • Keeping close in to the shore, they discovered, after two hours run, a fresh stream which burst in a cascade from the mountains, and swept its devious course through the jungle, until it poured its tribute into the waters of the Strait.1839, Frederick Marryat, The Phantom Ship

devious meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

devious in Hindi

devious, cynical, untrustworthy
कुटिल kuṭil

devious in Tamil

சுற்றி வளைத்த, தவறான, நேரற்ற

devious in Urdu

بعید, دور, گمراہ, پھیر دار

devious in Bengali

সরাসরি নয় এমন, আঁকাবাঁকা
More languagesFewer languages
devious in Malayalam
സത്യസന്ധമല്ലാത്ത, കുടിലതന്ത്രമുള്ള, വളഞ്ഞ, തെറ്റായ
devious in Kannada
ಬಳಸು, ಸುತ್ತುವ, ಮೋಸದ, ಚದಿಯ

Examples of devious in a sentence

  • We went down accordingly into the waste, and began to make our toilsome and devious travel towards the eastern verge.1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London...
  • It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Epilogue”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers...

All 12 example sentences with devious

Forms of devious

comparativemore devious
superlativemost devious

Origin of devious

1590s, "out of the common or direct way," from Latin devius (“out of the way, remote, off the main road”), from de via, from de (“off”) (see de-) + via (“way, road”). Compare deviate. Originally in the Latin literal sense; the figurative sense of "deceitful" is first recorded 1630s. Related to deviously, deviousness. Figurative senses of the Latin word were "retired, sequestered, wandering in the byways, foolish, inconsistent."

Words formed from devious

Phrases with devious

Words that rhyme with devious

Questions about devious

What does devious mean?
Devious means cunning or deceiving, not straightforward or honest, not frank.
What is devious in Hindi?
Devious in Hindi is कुटिल (kuṭil). See Devious meaning in Hindi.
How do you use devious in a sentence?
We went down accordingly into the waste, and began to make our toilsome and devious travel towards the eastern verge.
What part of speech is devious?
Devious is an adjective.
How do you pronounce devious?
Devious is pronounced /ˈdiː.vi.əs/.

Words near devious in the dictionary

  1. Devineys
  2. Deviock
  3. deviometer
  4. deviometers
  5. Deviot
  6. devious
  7. devious lick
  8. devious licked
  9. devious licking
  10. devious licks
  11. deviously

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: devious (page history and authors); कुटिल (Hindi) (page history and authors); devious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devious (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devious (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devious (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devious (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “devious.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/devious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.