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What Is the Difference Between vicious, villainous, and nefarious?
Nefarious comes from the Latin adjective nefarius and the Latin noun nefas, which means "crime." Nefas is a combination of ne- ("not") and fas, meaning "right" or "divine law."
Synonyms
Examples of nefarious in a Sentence
Richard Wolin, New Republic, 4 June 2001
… I always give the same response: Just because Frank posed for pictures with every leading capo, underboss and cement contractor of the day doesn't mean that he joined them in their nefarious underworld activities. Oh, occasionally he rode along on a hit or two, but that was just one of those social obligations …
—Lewis Grossberger, Time, 21 Dec. 1998
Three-tenths of a mile uphill from our mailbox on the road, that bend is so nefarious that neophytes often skidded into a snowbank or wound up fender-deep in mud there.
—Maxine Kumin, In Deep, 1987
a nefarious scheme to cheat people out of their money
the chaste heroines and nefarious villains of old-time melodramas
Vlada Gelman, TVLine, 15 Aug. 2024
Remus Repeal Reserve was named after bootlegger George Remus, a man with a nefarious and sometimes problematic history who nevertheless was an important figure during Prohibition.
—Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 13 Aug. 2024
That same year, Iranian hackers breached a website that a municipal government in the U.S. used to publish election results, though the attackers were caught before carrying out any nefarious activity, U.S. cybersecurity officials said.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 9 Aug. 2024
That same year, Iranian hackers breached a website that a municipal government in the US used to publish election results, though the attackers were caught before carrying out any nefarious activity, US cybersecurity officials said.
—Prarthana Prakash, Fortune, 9 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for nefarious 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nefarious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near nefarious
Cite this Entry
“Nefarious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nefarious. Accessed 8 Sep. 2024.
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nefarious
adjective
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