Word.ws English Dictionary

vicious

/ˈvɪʃəs/

vicious adjective: violent, destructive and cruel.

Adjective

vicious (comparative more vicious or viciouser, superlative most vicious or viciousest)

  1. Violent, destructive and cruel.
  2. Savage and aggressive.
    • He had always been remarkably immune from such little ailments, and had only once in his life been ill, of a vicious pneumonia long ago at school. He hadn't the faintest idea what to with a cold in the head, he just took quinine and continued to blow his nose.1922, Michael Arlen, “2/9/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
  3. (archaic) Pertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity.
    • We may so seize on vertue, that if we embrace it with an over-greedy and violent desire, it may become vicious., Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.195
    • Admiral Crawford was a man of vicious conduct, who chose, instead of retaining his niece, to bring his mistress under his own roof1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Proper noun capitalized: Vicious

Vicious

  1. A surname.

vicious meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

vicious in Tamil

ஊழலான, குற்றமுள்ள, தீய, கொடிய, ஊறு செய்யக்கூடிய

vicious in Urdu

عیبی, بدکار, بدخصلت, فاسد, نااہل, ناقص

vicious in Malayalam

ദുഷ്ടത നിറഞ്ഞ, വിട്ടുവീഴ്ചയില്ലാത്ത, അധർമ്മമായ

vicious in Kannada

ಸಿಲುಕು, ಸಿಕ್ಕು, ಅಗಡು, ನಿಷ್ಕರುಣೆಯ, ಹಿಂಸಾತ್ಮಕ, ಕ್ರೂರ
More languagesFewer languages
vicious in Sanskrit
तामस tāmasa

Examples of vicious in a sentence

  • When caught, he would often cop a vicious blow from his father.
  • There was a vicious rumour that the final was rigged, as the defense seemed useless.
  • He was laid low by a vicious blow to the head.

All 40 example sentences with vicious

Synonyms of vicious

Forms of vicious

comparativemore vicious
comparativeviciouser
superlativemost vicious
superlativeviciousest
alternative formvitious

Origin of vicious

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English vicious, from Anglo-Norman vicious, (modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium (“fault, vice”). Equivalent to vice + -ous.

Originally a nickname for a vicious person.

Words formed from vicious

Phrases with vicious

Words that rhyme with vicious

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about vicious

What does vicious mean?
Vicious means violent, destructive and cruel.
What is vicious in Tamil?
Vicious in Tamil is ஊழலான, குற்றமுள்ள, தீய. See Vicious meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is vicious?
Vicious can be an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce vicious?
Vicious is pronounced /ˈvɪʃəs/.

Words near vicious in the dictionary

  1. vicinine
  2. vicinities
  3. vicinity
  4. viciosities
  5. viciosity
  6. vicious
  7. vicious circle
  8. vicious circle principle
  9. vicious circles
  10. vicious cycle
  11. vicious cycles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vicious (page history and authors); Vicious (page history and authors); vicious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); vicious (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); vicious (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); vicious (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); तामस (Sanskrit) (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: en-us-vicious.ogg.

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