Baleful

Definitions: Baleful

Baleful

Adjective

1. Deadly or sinister; "the Florida eagles have a fierce baleful look".

2. Threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments; "a baleful look"; "forbidding thunderclouds"; "his tone became menacing"; "ominous rumblings of discontent"; "sinister storm clouds"; "a sinister smile"; "his threatening behavior"; "ugly black clouds"; "the situation became ugly".

Date "baleful" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Note: Baleful \Bale"ful\, adjective. [from Anglo-Saxon expression bealoful. See Bale misery.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Baleful

Synonyms: baneful (adj), forbidding (adj), menacing (adj), minacious (adj), minatory (adj), ominous (adj), sinister (adj), threatening (adj), ugly (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Inexpedience	Adjective: hurtful, harmful, scathful, baneful, baleful; injurious, deleterious, detrimental, noxious, pernicious, mischievous, full of mischief, mischief-making, malefic, malignant, nocuous, noisome; prejudicial; disserviceable, disadvantageous; wide-wasting.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Baleful

English words defined with "baleful": balefully, baneful ♦ Destructive sorties ♦ forbidding ♦ menacing, minacious, minatory ♦ ominous ♦ Sideral, sinister ♦ threatening ♦ ugly. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures (reference) Baleful Beasts: Great Supernatural Stories of the Animal Kingdom (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Play	Caption
	Clock tower; midnight; wolf; witching hour; ominous; apocalyptic; augural; baleful; baneful; clouded; dangerous; dark; dire; direful; dismal; doomed; doomful; fateful; fearful; forbidding; gloomy; grim; haunting; hostile; ill-boding; ill-fated; impending.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Title	Author	Quote
A Christmas Carol	Dickens, Charles	After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Baleful" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Baleful" is used about 87 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	87	35,390

Expression using "baleful": baleful influence. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language		Translations for "baleful"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		i keq (bad, bad tempered, blinking, bodeful, cancerous, catty, cheesy, crook, dark, defective, dubious, evil, heavy, ill, ill disposed, ill natured, ill-conditioned, lousy, low-grade, malign, malignant, nasty, naughty, perverse, poor, punk, shady, shoddy, sinister, ugly, vicious, vile, wicked). (various references)

Arabic		‏مهلك (annihilating, baneful, deadly, deathly, destructive, fatal, internecine, lethal, murderous, pernicious, pestilent, ruinous, withering), ‏مؤذ (annoying, bad, damaging, deleterious, detrimental, harmful, hurtful, injurious, maleficent, malevolent, malign, mischievous, nasty, nocuous, noisome, noxious, pernicious, poisonous, prejudicial, unwholesome, verminous, wicked). (various references)

Bulgarian		зъл (bad, bad tempered, blackhearted, evil, ill, ill disposed, ill tempered, ill-conditioned, malign, malignant, mean, scratchy, sinister, snaky, stuffy, sulphurous, swart, tricky, venomous, vicious, waspish, wicked), пагубен (baneful, calamitous, damnific, detrimental, evil, fatal, fateful, homicidal, malign, noxious, pernicious, pestilent, pestilential, ruinous, subversive). (various references)

Chinese		煞 (bring to a stop, decrease, pan-fry, tighten, very), 恶劣 (malevolent, Nastiness). (various references)

Czech		zlovìstný (black, fateful, inauspicious, ominous, portentous, sinister, spooky, uncanny, unlucky), zhoubný (baneful, deadly, destructive, hurtful, malign, malignant, noisome, pernicious, ruinous, unwholesome, virulent), neblahý (calamitous, dire, fateful, hapless, harmful, ill fated, ill-starred, inauspicious, ominous, sinister, unfortunate, unlucky). (various references)

French		sinistre, maléfique, funeste (baneful). (various references)

German		verderblich (balefully, baneful, banefully, corrupting, malign, noxious, perishable, pernicious, perniciously, perversive, ruinous, unwholesome), unheilvoll (calamitous, disasterous, disasterously, disastrous, fatal, malign, ominous, ominuosly, portentous). (various references)

Greek		λυπηρόσ (doleful, grievous, mournful, regrettable, sad, sorrowful, sorry), οδυνηρόσ (aching, afflictive, baneful, painful). (various references)

Hebrew		ז�"ו� י (malicious, mischievous, wicked, willful). (various references)

Hungarian		káros (deleterious, deteriorative, detrimental, disparaging, harmful, hurtful, ill, injurious, mischievous, parasitic, pernicious, poisonous, prejudicial). (various references)

Indonesian		menemui musibah, malang (down, hapless, poor, unlucky), celaka (calamitous, misfortune). (various references)

Italian		infausto (accursed, inauspicious, infaust, ominous, ominously, unfavourable), funesto; maligno, funesto (deadly, evil, portentous), distruttivo (blasting, demolishing, destroying, destructive, devastating). (various references)

Korean		해로운 (Baneful). (various references)

Manx		trimshagh (affecting; lamentation; sad person, dismal, grievous, heavy, heavy sorrowful, lugubrious, miserable, mournful, plaintive, sad, saddened, sorrowful, sorrowful person), olkyssagh (elfish, evilly-disposed, iniquitous, malicious, malignant, mischief-maker, mischievous, naughty, vicious, wicked), doogh (bad, ill). (various references)

Pig Latin		alefulbay.(various references)

Portuguese		sinistro (accident, casualty, dismal, ebon, eery, force, ghastly, grisly, lurid, omissible, sinister, uncanny, untoward), pernicioso (deleterious, detrimental, harmful, hurtful, malign, malignity, mischievous, noxious, pernicious, pestiferous, pestle, poisonous, prelacy), maligno, funesto, maligno (carping, ill disposed, impish, malefic, maleficent, malicious, malign, malignant, pernicious, poisonous, virulent). (various references)

Romanian		vãtãmãtor (baneful, cankerous, deleterious, harmful, injurious, maleficent, mischievous, noisome, noxious), rãu (Amiss, atrocious, awkward, awry, bad, bad for, bad-hearted, badly, black, bum, corrupt, depraved, evil, flagitious, foul, haggish, harm, ill, immoral, lousy, malefic, maleficent, malicious, malign, mischief, mischievous, miserable, naughty, perverse, rough, scoundrel, sickness, thin, unspeakable, useless, venomous, vicious, vile, wicked, wretched, wrong), periculos (awkward, breakneck, dangerous, dangerously, grave, parlous, perilous, perniciously, risky, trappy, unsafe, venturesome, wildcat), nenorocit (abject, disastrous, forlorn, grievous, grub, hapless, lame duck, mean, measly, miser, miserable, pilgarlic, rascal, rotten, sad, scullion, unfortunate, unhappy, wretch, wretched), nefast (bad, baneful, black letter, evil, poisonous, poisonously), malefic (harmful, malefic), lugubru (dire, dismal, howling, lugubrious, luridly), groaznic (appalling, awful, awfully, desperate, dire, dreadful, foul, frightful, ghastly, grim, groovy, gruesome, horrendous, horrent, horrible, horribly, horrid, howling, lousy, miserable, miserably, monstrous, sad, scary, shocking, terrible, terribly, vile), dãunãtor (bad, evil, hurtful, injurious, maleficent, malign, mischievous, noisome, pest, pestilent, pestilential, prejudicially, sinister). (various references)

Russian		гибельный (baneful, disastous, disastrous, pernicious, sinister). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		štetan (adverse, bad, baneful, damaging, deleterious, destructive, detrimental, harmful, hurtful, inimical, injurious, maleficent, mischievous, nocuous, noisome, prejudicial). (various references)

Spanish		funesto (baneful, black, disastrous, evil, fatal, fell, ill fated, pernicious, unfortunate). (various references)

Swedish		ondskefull (fiendish, ill natured, pernicious, sinister, unholy). (various references)

Thai		มุ่งร้ายหรือร้ายกาจ. (various references)

Turkish		zararlı (baneful, corruptive, deleterious, derogatory, destructive, detrimental, evil, harmful, hurtful, ill, inimical, injurious, insalubrious, malefic, maleficent, mischievous, nocuous, noisome, noxious, pernicious, pestilent, pestilential, prejudicial, unhealthy, unwholesome), uğursuz (accursed, accurst, black, bloody, demon, dire, evil, fateful, hoodoo, ill fated, ill-omened, inauspicious, ominous, portentous, sinister, unlucky, untoward), kötü niyetli (gloating, ill disposed, ill-affected, ill-intentioned, malevolent, malicious, malignant, poisonous, sinister, wanton). (various references)

Ukranian		сумний (afflictive, cheerless, comfortless, damp, dark, deplorable, despondent, dismal, doleful, drear, dreary, dumpish, dumpy, elegiac, elegiacal, grievous, heavy-hearted, joyless, lamentable, lugubrious, maddening, melancholy, mournful, overcast, plaintive, regrettable, rueful, sad, sorrowful, unhappy, wailful, wan), тужливий (plaintive, plangent, wailing, wailsome, woeful, woesome), шкідливий (adverse, bad, baneful, calamitous, cancerous, cankerous, damnific, deleterious, destructive, evil, harmful, hurtful, ill, inimical, injurious, insanitary, mischievous, nocuous, noisome, noxious, pestiferous, pestilent, sickly, unhealthy, wrongful), злісний (cammed, cankered, cattish, despiteful, diabolic, diabolical, evil-minded, inveterate, malicious, malign, malignant, unholy, venomous, virulent, wrathy), лиховісний, похмурний (cloudy). (various references)

Vietnamese		xấu (deplorable, evil, ill-favoured, ill-looking, punk, shabby, sorry, ugly, unbeautiful, unpleasant, wicked, wrong), rủi (ill-fated, unchancy, unhappy, unlucky), không may (hapless, inauspicious, luckless, unchancy, unfortunate, unlucky, untoward), gở ác. (various references)

Welsh		gresynol, galarus (lamentable, mournful, sad), alaethus (lamentable, mournful, sorrowful). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	luctisonus, pestifer. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "baleful": balefully, balefulness, balefulnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Baleful" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Babeuf, Bailleul, Balafon, Ballerup, baseful, beakerful, bolful, bulful, galleyful, pailsful. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "baleful" (pronounced bā"lful)
4	-l f u l	doleful, skillful, soulful, willful.
3	-f u l	apocryphal, artful, awful, baffle, bashful, beautiful, blissful, boastful, bountiful, careful, cheerful, colorful, deceitful, delightful, disdainful, disgraceful, disrespectful, distasteful, distrustful, doubtful, dreadful, duffel, dutiful, eventful, faithful, falafel, fanciful, fateful, fearful, fistful, fitful, flavorful, forceful, forgetful, fretful, frightful, fruitful, gainful, gleeful, graceful, grateful, harmful, hateful, healthful, helpful, hopeful, houseful, hurtful, insightful, joyful, kerfuffle, lawful, lustful, masterful, meaningful, merciful, mindful, mistrustful, mournful, muffle, needful, neglectful, painful, panful, peaceful, pitiful, playful, plentiful, powerful, prayerful, purposeful, raffle, regretful, remorseful, resentful, reshuffle, resourceful, respectful, restful, riffle, rifle, rightful, rueful, ruffle, scornful, scuffle, shameful, shuffle, sinful, sorrowful, spiteful, stifle, stressful, successful, suspenseful, tactful, tasteful, tearful, thankful, thoughtful, trifle, triumphal, truffle, truthful, tuneful, uneventful, unfaithful, ungrateful, unhealthful, unhelpful, unlawful, unsuccessful, untruthful, useful, vengeful, waffle, wasteful, watchful, wishful, wistful, woeful, wonderful, worshipful, wrongful, youthful, zestful.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-b-e-f-l-l-u"
	-1 letter: befall, bullae.
	-2 letters: bulla, fable, fella, label.
	-3 letters: able, alef, bale, ball, beau, bell, blae, blue, bull, fall, feal, fell, flab, flea, flub, flue, fuel, full, leaf, leal, lube.
	-4 letters: alb, ale, all, bal, bel, eau, elf, ell, feu, flu, fub, lab, lea, leu.
	-5 letters: ab, ae, al, ba, be, ef, el, fa, la.
	Words containing the letters "a-b-e-f-l-l-u"
	+1 letter: blameful, furlable, tableful.
	+2 letters: balefully, banefully, barrelful, flabellum, flushable, tablefuls, tablesful, unflyable.
	+3 letters: barrelfuls, barrelsful, blamefully.
	+4 letters: balefulness, beautifully, qualifiable, unflappable.
	+5 letters: emulsifiable.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.