sinister
Syllables: si·ni·sterUK/ˈsɪ.nɪ.stə//ˈsɪ.nɪ.stəɹ/
sinister adjective: inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate.
Adjective
sinister (comparative more sinister, superlative most sinister)
- Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate.
- bar sinister
- All the several ills that visit earth / Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, (please specify the page)
- Synonyms:
- foreboding, portentous, augurous, baleful, bodeful, boding, dire, disastrous, divine, fatal
- Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.
- sinister influences
- the sinister atmosphere of the crypt
- Synonyms:
- malicious, malevolent, abandoned, arrant, bad, bad apple, bad seed, baleful, scurrilous, baneful
- Of the left side.
- my Mothers bloud / Runs on the dexter checke, and this ſiniſter / Bounds in my fathers:c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- His ſicatrice, with an Embleme of warre, heere on his ſiniſter cheeke;c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Antonyms:
- dexter
- On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
- The shield was divided into five, with two coats of arms on the dexter side (the right-hand side from the point of view of the bearer of the shield)—London and Southampton—and three on the sinister side—Salisbury, Winchester and Portsmouth.1956 July, Col. H. C. B. Rogers, “Railway Heraldry”, in Railway Magazine, page 477
- Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.
- Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC
- He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.1667, Robert South, The Practice of Religion Enforced by Reason
sinister meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
sinister in Tamil
- கெடு நோக்குடைய கெட்ட, கொடிய, தீக்குறியான
sinister in Bengali
- অশুভ, ভীতিপ্রদ, অমঙ্গলজনক
sinister in Malayalam
- അശുഭസൂചകമായ, നീരസം, അമർഷം കാണിക്കുന്ന, ഭാഗ്യഹീനമായ
sinister in Kannada
- ಕೇಡಿನ, ಬೆದರಿಸುವ, ಕುತ್ತದ, ಮೋಸದ, ಬಿಂಕಿನ, ಭೀತಿಗೊಳಿಸುವ
More languagesFewer languages
- sinister in Arabic
- شَرِير šarīr
- sinister in Malay
- jahat
- sinister in Persian
- گجسته gojaste
Examples of sinister in a sentence
- Escutcheons were becoming valueless, how sinister soever the blots and clots upon them.1922, Michael Arlen, “1/5/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
- Before the train had stopped he had decorated his sinister shirt-cuff with the inscription, ‘J.1911, Saki, ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis:
- He read in their looks […] sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself.1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald...
Synonyms of sinister
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of sinister
| comparative | more sinister |
|---|---|
| superlative | most sinister |
| alternative form (obsolete) | sinistre |
Origin of sinister
From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French senestre, sinistre (“left”), from Latin sinister (“left hand”).
Words formed from sinister
- ambisinister
- ambisinistrous
- bar sinister
- baton sinister
- bend sinister
- sinister aspect
- sinister chief
- sinisterism
- sinisterity
- sinisterly
- sinisterness
- sinisterwise
- sinistral
- sinistrous
- unsinister
Phrases with sinister
Questions about sinister
- What does sinister mean?
- Sinister means inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate.
- What is sinister in Tamil?
- Sinister in Tamil is கெடு நோக்குடைய கெட்ட, கொடிய, தீக்குறியான. See Sinister meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use sinister in a sentence?
- Escutcheons were becoming valueless, how sinister soever the blots and clots upon them.
- What part of speech is sinister?
- Sinister is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce sinister?
- Sinister is pronounced /ˈsɪ.nɪ.stə/ (UK).
Words near sinister in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sinister (page history and authors); sinister (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sinister (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sinister (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sinister (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sinister.ogg, en-au-sinister.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sinister.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sinister. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.