1
as in demonic
of, relating to, or worthy of an evil spirit
a fiendish delight in playing cruel tricks
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in brutal
having or showing the desire to inflict severe pain and suffering on others
shook with fiendish laughter as he watched his victims writhe in agony
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of fiendish
Next up is Pagli, a madwoman with a thin, charred body, fiendish laugh, and ghoulish shrieks.
—
JSTOR Daily, 30 Oct. 2025
Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Art of Fugue is a fiendish work of near-mythical status.
—Genevieve Marks, Air Mail, 25 Oct. 2025
But a new shingle (and URL) outside the Pentagon does not solve the fiendish challenges of running the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force.
—Andreas Kluth, Twin Cities, 11 Sep. 2025
So as access to this technique expands, no flaw, failure, or fiendish trick will be able to hide.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Apr. 2022
See All Example Sentences for fiendish
JSTOR Daily, 30 Oct. 2025
Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Art of Fugue is a fiendish work of near-mythical status.
—Genevieve Marks, Air Mail, 25 Oct. 2025
But a new shingle (and URL) outside the Pentagon does not solve the fiendish challenges of running the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force.
—Andreas Kluth, Twin Cities, 11 Sep. 2025
So as access to this technique expands, no flaw, failure, or fiendish trick will be able to hide.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Apr. 2022
See All Example Sentences for fiendish
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fiendish
Adjective
-
Her friends would deal with maladies as diverse as pill addiction and demonic possession.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 May 2026
-
In other words, this is basically a demonic-possession story, albeit one without any actual demons; at one point, Nikki briefly starts moving backward for no reason.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
15 May 2026
Adjective
-
The traditional studio model already faces immense pressure from fragmented audiences, rising production costs, declining television economics and an increasingly brutal streaming market.—
Joseph M. Singer,
HollywoodReporter,
22 May 2026
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About 150 cops were hospitalized after brutal beatings by those criminal rioters.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
22 May 2026
Adjective
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Maul was always expendable, being played like a violin by the Sith for their own sinister purposes.—
Sergio Pereira,
Space.com,
19 May 2026
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This sinister man was Lennon's future murderer who got him to sign an album — perhaps this very album — and later shot him dead.—
Virginia Chamlee,
PEOPLE,
18 May 2026
Adjective
-
In Sylvie’s imagination, Nita becomes Anna, a sultry beauty with a cruel streak who has been dating the meek Christophe (Niney) while secretly engaging in an affair with their married boss, Pierre (Cassel).—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
15 May 2026
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The first major climb of any Grand Tour is usually a cruel dose of reality — where teams, having built around a rider over the previous week, suddenly realise those sacrifices might have been in vain.—
Jacob Whitehead,
New York Times,
15 May 2026
Adjective
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Yet the show’s big bads are scrumptiously diabolical.—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
15 May 2026
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What happens when those emotions are anger, fury, revenge and general diabolical fiendishness for a Wolves team that wanted to show him what playoff basketball is supposed to be?—
Zach Harper,
New York Times,
12 May 2026
Adjective
-
Another thankless gig leads Ben to Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li), a nightclub singer with ties to Brendan Gleeson‘s Silvermane, a vicious mobster engaged in an increasingly heated conflict with the city’s mayor (Michael Kostroff).—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
22 May 2026
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There are the victims, their families, and lives left shattered because of a single person’s vicious wrath.—
Boston Herald editorial staff,
Boston Herald,
20 May 2026
Adjective
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The Celeste team argues that large, heavy drones pose a serious cybersecurity risk, as they could be hijacked and used for harm by malicious hackers.—
Chris Young,
Interesting Engineering,
14 May 2026
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That’s not necessarily malicious.—
Amber Harding OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
14 May 2026
Adjective
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Take George Mullins — 18 years old at the battle of Carentan, one of the most savage engagements of the war, where his company lost 43 of its 45 men in three days of fighting.—
Afdhel Aziz,
Forbes.com,
18 May 2026
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The perpetrators of these crimes are savage animals without a shred of humanity.—
Bobby Zirkin,
Baltimore Sun,
14 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Fiendish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fiendish. Accessed 23 May. 2026.
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