as in sinfulness
the state or quality of being utterly evil
the villain's complete badness made him a good foil for the unfailingly virtuous hero
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Recent Examples of badness
As if to prove that it can’t be exceeded in badness, Playdate has both.
—
Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 12 Nov. 2025
Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 12 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for badness
Noun
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That was really what helped me into the character and into her evilness.—
William Earl,
Variety,
4 Oct. 2025
Noun
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These satellite images from late October appearing to show bodies in the streets and bloodstains on the ground, gruesome signs of the atrocities visible from space.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
9 Nov. 2025
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Raymond’s team has been tracking atrocities in Sudan using satellite imagery from NASA and commercial sources.—
Nicolas Niarchos,
New Yorker,
7 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Badness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/badness. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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