bad actor

noun

plural bad actors

: a person, group, country, etc. who purposely and usually repeatedly engages in very bad behavior (such as committing crimes or causing harm to others)

Giving users a way to prove that they're being harassed with, say, a screenshot or some other form of authentication could help Twitter catch bad actors, even after they've covered their tracks.

—Issie Lapowsky

A perennial diplomatic bad actor, North Korea has already rattled its sabers at the opening of the Obama administration.

—Alex Kingsbury

"We've got to break away from the notion," as the U.A.W.'s [United Auto Workers] director of public relations, Peter G. Laarman, puts it, "that labor is a 'bad actor' in the economy. …"

—Harry Stein

also : something that causes trouble, danger, or a problem

The bad actor in male pattern hair loss is DHT, a metabolic product of testosterone.

—Jane E. Brody

We have special ducts throughout the vapor bath that carry away all the toxic bad actors.

—PC Today

Examples of bad actor in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Less friction for good actors, less room for bad actors, and less pointless duplication for everyone else, all the while protecting platforms from data breaches and litigation. — Raj Ananthanpillai, Forbes.com, 19 June 2026

In this case, the trouble, reported by Bleeping Computer, is that bad actors have been using the Steam Workshop to spread malware to Wallpaper Engine users. — Alan Henry, PC Magazine, 19 June 2026

This successful prosecution ensures that bad actors cannot profit at the expense of Maryland citizens, and protects a fair and competitive marketplace for thousands of responsible Maryland businesses. — Adam Thompson, CBS News, 17 June 2026

Red Flags to Avoid The ORM industry has its share of bad actors. — Jason Phillips, USA Today, 17 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1879, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for bad actor

• attractor
• cofactor
• compactor
• contactor
• contractor
• distractor
• extractor
• impactor
• protractor
• reactor
• redactor
• refractor