wickedness
noun
wick·ed·ness
ˈwi-kəd-nəs 
1
: the quality or state of being wicked
2
: something wicked
Synonyms
Examples of wickedness in a Sentence
a couple of live wires who got into all kinds of wickedness during their vacation in Las Vegas
the movie featured a villain of unadulterated wickedness
Recent Examples on the Web
His perception of man’s wickedness would prove tragically prescient.
—
Amy Crawford, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Apr. 2024
There is something in suburban rabbits that has evolved toward wickedness,
their tails like an implement developed
for hospitals, to mop up blood.
—Diane Seuss, The Atlantic, 20 Mar. 2024
One pines for the days when wickedness took the plump and tangible form of a man named Goldfinger, whose only digital ambition was to get his fingers on gold.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2023
What we’re left with is a dreadful, sometimes surpassingly dull taxonomy of wickedness, as the greedy, lunkheaded Ernest succumbs to Hale’s venal spell, while also falling in love with and marrying an Osage woman named Mollie.
—Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2023
This element of the series was often too on the nose, and much less compelling than the random displays of immorality and wickedness that make the Ushers rotten to the core.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 11 Oct. 2023
Its religious trappings are plain enough: the attribution of natural catastrophes to human wickedness, revelations of the apocalypse, persecution of heretics.
—Christian Schneider, National Review, 28 Sep. 2023
But there is also a kind of understanding being telegraphed, across generations, of the woes and wickedness that Black women will be forced to wrestle with over the course of their lives.
—Hazlitt, 9 Aug. 2023
The atmosphere around bullfighting was already losing some of its wickedness and danger; the longer Manolete reigned over the sport, the more the crowd expected of him and the harsher its impatience and disappointment became with his subtle and refined performances.
—New York Times, 3 May 2022
Amy Crawford, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Apr. 2024
There is something in suburban rabbits that has evolved toward wickedness,
their tails like an implement developed
for hospitals, to mop up blood.
—Diane Seuss, The Atlantic, 20 Mar. 2024
One pines for the days when wickedness took the plump and tangible form of a man named Goldfinger, whose only digital ambition was to get his fingers on gold.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2023
What we’re left with is a dreadful, sometimes surpassingly dull taxonomy of wickedness, as the greedy, lunkheaded Ernest succumbs to Hale’s venal spell, while also falling in love with and marrying an Osage woman named Mollie.
—Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2023
This element of the series was often too on the nose, and much less compelling than the random displays of immorality and wickedness that make the Ushers rotten to the core.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 11 Oct. 2023
Its religious trappings are plain enough: the attribution of natural catastrophes to human wickedness, revelations of the apocalypse, persecution of heretics.
—Christian Schneider, National Review, 28 Sep. 2023
But there is also a kind of understanding being telegraphed, across generations, of the woes and wickedness that Black women will be forced to wrestle with over the course of their lives.
—Hazlitt, 9 Aug. 2023
The atmosphere around bullfighting was already losing some of its wickedness and danger; the longer Manolete reigned over the sport, the more the crowd expected of him and the harsher its impatience and disappointment became with his subtle and refined performances.
—New York Times, 3 May 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wickedness.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Wickedness.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wickedness. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
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