Word.ws English Dictionary

necessary evil

necessary evil noun: an unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted, especially because the available alternative courses of action or inaction would be worse.

Noun

necessary evil (plural necessary evils)

  1. (idiomatic) An unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted, especially because the available alternative courses of action or inaction would be worse.
    • Another punishing round of chemo is a necessary evil if Lisa is to have a fighting chance against the cancer.
    • My boss is a real piece of work, but my kids make keeping this job a necessary evil.

necessary evil meaning in Tamil

necessary evil in Tamil

தவிர்க்கவியலாதத் தீமை, ஏற்க வேண்டியத் தீமை

Examples of necessary evil in a sentence

  • Wadhurst, Robertsbridge and Stonegate are of simple Italinate^([sic]) style, unspoiled by that necessary evil of a platform awning.1957 August, H. P. White, “The Tonbridge-Hastings Line and its Traffic”, in Railway Magazine, page 529:
  • The impact of clearing overgrown greenery is a necessary evil that must be tackled - for a variety of reasons.2025 October 29, Ryan Hall, “Hubble prevents toil and trouble”, in RAIL, number 1047, page 38:

Forms of necessary evil

pluralnecessary evils

Questions about necessary evil

What does necessary evil mean?
Necessary evil means an unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted, especially because the available alternative courses of action or inaction would be worse.
What is necessary evil in Tamil?
Necessary evil in Tamil is தவிர்க்கவியலாதத் தீமை, ஏற்க வேண்டியத் தீமை. See Necessary evil meaning in Tamil.
How do you use necessary evil in a sentence?
Wadhurst, Robertsbridge and Stonegate are of simple Italinate^([sic]) style, unspoiled by that necessary evil of a platform awning.
What part of speech is necessary evil?
Necessary evil is a noun.
What is the plural of necessary evil?
The plural of necessary evil is necessary evils.

Words near necessary evil in the dictionary

  1. necessarry
  2. necessars
  3. necessary
  4. necessary condition
  5. necessary conditions
  6. necessary evil
  7. necessary evils
  8. necessary house
  9. necessary houses
  10. necessary place
  11. necessary places

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: necessary evil (page history and authors); necessary evil (Tamil 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-necessary evil.wav, En-au-necessary evil.ogg.

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