fiend

noun

ˈfēnd 

1

a

: devil sense 1

b

: demon

c

: a person of great wickedness or maliciousness

2

: a person extremely devoted to a pursuit or study : fanatic

a golf fiend

3

: addict sense 1

a dope fiend

4

: wizard sense 2

a fiend at mathematics

Synonyms of fiend

• villain
• brute
• monster
• devil
• savage
• beast
• criminal
• wretch
• offender

Examples of fiend in a Sentence

His hands were trembling, actually trembling, as if he were some sort of coffee fiend or something. —T. Coraghessan Boyle, The Road to Wellville, 1993

Wodehouse may not have liked Dickens, but he certainly read him. He read like a fiend. —Christopher Hitchens, Times Literary Supplement, 7-13 Sept. 1990

The shameless effrontery of the fiend, at the café, pretending to forget all he had done to her, begging to take up with her again, as if nothing had happened between them a dozen years ago. —Irving Wallace, The Plot, 1967

a fiend in human form

He's a real golf fiend.

Recent Examples on the Web

For pizza fiends who want the full experience, Seu offers three different tasting menus that range from five to eight courses and feature his greatest hits. — Kat Chen, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Sep. 2026

At once not quite real and all too real, Cohn has the uncanny presence of a ghoul or a fiend. — Fintan O’Toole, The New York Review of Books, 19 Sep. 2026

Excuse me, but where is the decency and humanity from these bloodthirsty fiends ogling and angling to get their photos, undoubtedly for posting on social media? — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 7 Sep. 2026

Every mosquito has a type Count me among the unfortunate souls who are mosquito magnets; something about my body chemistry is irresistible to those tiny bloodsucking fiends. — ArsTechnica, 1 Sep. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English fīend; akin to Old High German fīant enemy, Sanskrit pīyati he reviles, blames

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing fiend

• like a fiend

Rhymes for fiend

• cleaned
• gleaned
• leaned
• screened
• weaned
• careened
• convened
• demeaned
• machined
• unscreened
• contravened
• guillotined

Kids Definition

fiend

noun

ˈfēnd 

1

: demon sense 1, devil

2

: an extremely wicked or cruel person

3

a

: a person enthusiastically devoted to something

b

: addict entry 2 sense 1

fiendish

ˈfēn-dish

adjective

fiendishly adverb

fiendishness noun