Word.ws English Dictionary

worst

UK/wɜːst/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northumbria/wɔːst/

worst adjective: most inferior; doing the least good. Also the superlative form of badly.

Adjective

worst

  1. Most inferior; doing the least good.
    • I think putting oil on a burn is the worst thing you can do.
  2. Most unfavorable.
    • That's the worst news I've had all day.
  3. Most harmful or severe.
    • The worst storm we had last winter knocked down our power lines.
  4. Used with the definite article and an implied noun: something that is worst.
    • None of these photographs of me are good, but this one is definitely the worst.

Noun

worst (plural worsts)

  1. Something or someone that is the worst.
    • The humorist helps people to explore and confront their worsts1991, Don C. Dinkmeyer, Jr., The Encouragement Book: Becoming a Positive Person, page 201

Verb

worst (third-person singular simple present worsts, present participle worsting, simple past and past participle worsted)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To make worse.
  2. (dated, intransitive) To grow worse; to deteriorate.
    • Anne haggard, Mary coarse, every face in the neighbourhood worsting.1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as...
  3. (rare) To outdo or defeat, especially in battle.
    • The […] Philistines were worsted by the captivated ark.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
    • Her joy and pride in the honour paid to her darling son Adam was beginning to be worsted in the conflict with the jealousy and fretfulness which had revived when Adam came to tell her that Captain Donnithorne desired him to join the dancers in the hall.1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “The Dance”, in Adam Bede […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book third, pages 205–206

Proper noun capitalized: Worst

Worst (plural Worsts)

  1. A surname from German.

Also used as

worst is also the superlative form of badly.

worst meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

worst in Hindi

most inferior
सबसे बुरा sabse burā, बदतरीन badatrīn

worst in Tamil

மிக மோசமானது

worst in Marathi

सर्वात वाईट, सर्वांत वाईट

worst in Urdu

بدترین, سب سے بدتر
More languagesFewer languages
worst in Bengali
সবচেয়ে খারাপ, সবথেকে খারাপ, সবচেয়ে বাজে
worst in Telugu
చెత్తగా, అత్యంత ఘోరం
worst in Malayalam
ഏറ്റവും മോശമായത്, ഏറ്റവും മോശം, ഏറ്റവും മോശമായി
worst in Kannada
ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಕೆಟ್ಟದು, ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಕೆಟ್ಟದಾಗಿದೆ, ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಕೆಟ್ಟದ್ದಾಗಿದೆ
worst in Punjabi
ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਭੈਡ਼ਾ, ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਭੈਡ਼ੀ
worst in Gujarati
સૌથી ખરાબ
worst in Sanskrit
अधम adhama
worst in Tagalog
pinakamasama, pinakamasahol
worst in Malay
terburuk
worst in Thai
เลวที่สุด,แย่ที่สุด
worst in Vietnamese
tệ nhất

Examples of worst in a sentence

  • The latest port of the database software is the worst since we made the changeover.
  • Susan's fever broke at about 3 AM, and the doctor said the worst was over.
  • Preparing for the worst, they put away food for the winter.

All 40 example sentences with worst

Synonyms of worst

Antonyms

Forms of worst

Noun
pluralworsts
Verb
third-person singular presentworsts
present participleworsting
past participleworsted
pastworsted
Proper noun
pluralWorsts

Origin of worst

From Middle English worste, wurste, warste, werste, wirste, from Old English wierrest, from Proto-Germanic *wirsistaz, superlative form of *ubilaz (“bad, evil”); compare worse. Cognate with Old Saxon wirsista, wirrista (“worst”), Old High German wirst, wirsesto, wirsisto (“worst”), Danish værst (“worst”), Swedish värst (“worst”), Icelandic verstur (“worst”).

Borrowed from German Worst, a variant of Wurst (“sausage”).

Words formed from worst

Phrases with worst

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with worst

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about worst

What does worst mean?
Worst means most inferior; doing the least good.
What is worst in Hindi?
Worst in Hindi is सबसे बुरा (sabse burā), बदतरीन (badatrīn). See Worst meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is worst?
Worst can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce worst?
Worst is pronounced /wɜːst/ (UK).

Words near worst in the dictionary

  1. worsifies
  2. worsify
  3. worsifying
  4. Worsley
  5. Worsleys
  6. worst
  7. worst case scenario
  8. worst case scenarios
  9. worst comes to worst
  10. worst enemies
  11. worst enemy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: worst (page history and authors); Worst (page history and authors); worst (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); worst (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); worst (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); worst (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); worst (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); worst (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); worst (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); worst (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); worst (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-worst.ogg.

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