Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sinister |
SinisterAdjective1. 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". 2. Stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable; "black deeds"; "a black lie"; "his black heart has concocted yet another black deed"; "Darth Vader of the dark side"; "a dark purpose"; "dark undercurrents of ethnic hostility"; "the scheme of some sinister intelligence bent on punishing him"-Thomas Hardy. 3. (heraldry) on or starting from the wearer's left; "bar sinister". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "sinister" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Note: Sinister \Sin"is*ter\ (s[i^]n"[i^]s*t[~e]r), adjective. Note: [Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, as Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Sinister (Latin, on the left hand). According to augury, birds, etc., appearing on the left-hand side forbode illluck; but, on the right-hand side, good luck. Thus, corva sinistra (a crow on the left-hand) is a sign of ill-luck which belongs to English superstitions as much as to the ancient Roman or Etruscan.(Virgil: Eclogues, i. 18.) "That raven on yon left-hand oak (Curse on his ill-betiding croak) Bodes me no good." Gay: Fable xxxvii. Sinister. (See Bar Sinister.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: SinisterSynonyms: baleful (adj), black (adj), dark (adj), forbidding (adj), menacing (adj), minacious (adj), minatory (adj), ominous (adj), threatening (adj), ugly (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Disrepute | Crying shame, burning shame; scandalum magnatum, badge of infamy, blot in one's escutcheon; bend sinister, bar sinister; champain, point champain; byword of reproach; Ichabod. |
Illegality | Illegality, informality, unlawfulness, illegitimacy, bar sinister. |
Imperfection | Fault, defect, weak point; screw loose; flaw; (break); gap; twist; taint, attainder; bar sinister, hole in one's coat; blemish; weakness; half blood; shortcoming; drawback; seamy side. |
Inexpedience | Unlucky, sinister; obnoxious; untoward, disastrous. |
Sinistrality | Sinistrality; left, left hand, a gauche; sinister, nearside, larboard, port. |
Adjective: left-handed; sinister; sinistral, sinistrorsal, sinistrorse, sinistrous; | |
Vice | Base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous; flagrant, flagitious; atrocious, incarnate, accursed. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Sinister |
| English words defined with "sinister": Awk ♦ baleful, baneful, Bend sinister, black ♦ coelogyne, Contourne', cosmopolitan ♦ dark, Decrescent ♦ forbidding ♦ grim ♦ Infaust ♦ Laszlo Lowestein, Lorre, Lozengy ♦ menacing, minacious, minatory, mordant ♦ ominous ♦ Peter Lorre, Purpure ♦ Saltirewise, Sinisterly ♦ Tenne, threatening ♦ ugly. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "sinister": Arm ♦ Bottles ♦ Crystal ♦ Eric Conspiracy, Eyebrows ♦ GHOUL ♦ Knights Baronets ♦ Ulster Badge ♦ Veil. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "sinister": Sinistrous. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Sinister" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. German (sinister), Latin (left, on the left side, sinister). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Yeah, I think it was your sinister moustache (Memento; writing credit: Bo Goldman; Lawrence Hauben) Dark and sinister man, have at thee (Hook; writing credit: J.M. Barrie;) Meeting with sinister types much (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls; writing credit: Steve Oedekerk) Ah yes, the sinister yet addictive card game (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) Six drops of Essence of Terror, Five drops of Sinister Sauce; (Milton the Monster; writing credit: Heywood Kling; Jack Mercer) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Friendly Fifties and the Sinister Sixties: 1850-1863 (1968) Port Sinister (1953) Celia: The Sinister Affair of Poor Aunt Nora (1949) Sinister Journey (1948) Castle Sinister (1932) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A sinister companion. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Sinister wisdom / photograph by Tee Corinne. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Sinister Sky 1" by Jay M Commentary: "Dark Sky After a Calgary Hail Storm." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Play | Caption |
 | Sinister digital sounds characteristic of a horror or suspense film. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Thomas Jefferson | If no action is to be deemed virtuous for which malice can imagine a sinister motive, then there never was a virtuous action. |
William Blake | When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | Thus the aristocracy took their revenge by singing lampoons on their new master, and whispering in his ears sinister prophecies of coming catastrophe. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | All this would have made one, who had known nothing of what was going forward, waver between a very sinister idea and a very simple idea |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | Whether they were always so free from avarice, partialities, or want, that a bribe, or some other sinister view, could have no place among them |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | GHOUL, n. A demon addicted to the reprehensible habit of devouring the dead. The existence of ghouls has been disputed by that class of controversialists who are more concerned to deprive the world of comforting beliefs than to give it anything good in their place. In 1640 Father Secchi saw one in a cemetery near Florence and frightened it away with the sign of the cross. He describes it as gifted with many heads an an uncommon allowance of limbs, and he saw it in more than one place at a time. The good man was coming away from dinner at the time and explains that if he had not been "heavy with eating" he would have seized the demon at all hazards. Atholston relates that a ghoul was caught by some sturdy peasants in a churchyard at Sudbury and ducked in a horsepond. (He appears to think that so distinguished a criminal should have been ducked in a tank of rosewater.) The water turned at once to blood "and so contynues unto ys daye." The pond has since been bled with a ditch. As late as the beginning of the fourteenth century a ghoul was cornered in the crypt of the cathedral at Amiens and the whole population surrounded the place. Twenty armed men with a priest at their head, bearing a crucifix, entered and captured the ghoul, which, thinking to escape by the stratagem, had transformed itself to the semblance of a well known citizen, but was nevertheless hanged, drawn and quartered in the midst of hideous popular orgies. The citizen whose shape the demon had assumed was so affected by the sinister occurrence that he never again showed himself in Amiens and his fate remains a mystery. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
George Washington | 1789-1797 | At other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. |
Andrew Jackson | 1829-1837 | I allude to the materials which this subject has afforded for sinister appeals to selfish feelings, and the opinion heretofore so extensively entertained of its adaptation to the purposes of personal ambition. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Sinister" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Sinister" is used about 707 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% | 707 | 9,466 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "sinister": Bar sinister ♦ Bend sinister ♦ in a sinister way ♦ oculus sinister ♦ sinister aspect ♦ sinister base ♦ sinister chief ♦ sinister face. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "sinister": Sinister-handed, sinister-looking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "sinister"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | ogurzi (bodeful, ominous, portentous), i lig (bad, basilisk, catty, despiteful, diabolic, diabolical, evil, evil-minded, felon, godless, iniquitous, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean, nasty, nefarious, perverse, spiteful, vicious, wicked), i keq (bad, bad tempered, baleful, 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, ugly, vicious, vile, wicked), gjëmëmadhe (fatal). (various references) | |
Arabic | مشؤوم (disastrous, ill-omened, inauspicious, ominous, unfortunate, unlucky), نحس (bad luck, bumper, grim, illness, jinx, misfortune, ominous), واقع إلى اليسار, ضحية (black sheep, fall guy, martyr, patsy, prey, sacrifice, sufferer, victim), أيسر (left, left handed), شرير (bad, black, black-hearted, dark, devil, diabolic, diabolical, evil, ill, iniquitous, maleficent, malicious, malign, nasty, naughty, rascally, reprobate, rogue, roguish, rude, spiteful, unholy, vicious, wicked). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | на лявата страна, зъл (bad, bad tempered, baleful, blackhearted, evil, ill, ill disposed, ill tempered, ill-conditioned, malign, malignant, mean, scratchy, snaky, stuffy, sulphurous, swart, tricky, venomous, vicious, waspish, wicked), застрашителен (alarming, formidable, fulminatory, grave, ominous, ugly), злокобен (dire, ill-omened, inauspicious, ominous, portentous, sidereal), зловещ (bodeful, creepy, eerie, eery, ill-omened, lurid, ominous, portentous, screamy), злобен (bitchy, blackhearted, catty, despiteful, dirty, envenomed, evil-minded, ill natured, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malignant, nasty, rancorous, spiteful, spleenful, squint eyed, venomous, vicious, virulent), лош (bad, chronic, cobbler, evil, fie-fie, foul, ill natured, ill tempered, ill-conditioned, inferior, loose, lousy, malefic, maleficent, malign, mean, miscreant, miserable, nasty, naughty, poor, rough, rugged, severe, shoddy, sorry, thumping, ugly, vicious, wicked, wrong), престъпен (criminal, culpable, fell, felonious, flagitious, guilty, maleficent, malfeasant, nefarious, sinful, tough, wrongful). (various references) | |
Chinese | 邪惡 (evil, vicious, wicked), 阴险 (insidious). (various references) | |
Czech | zlovìstný (baleful, black, fateful, inauspicious, ominous, portentous, spooky, uncanny, unlucky), neblahý (baleful, calamitous, dire, fateful, hapless, harmful, ill fated, ill-starred, inauspicious, ominous, unfortunate, unlucky). (various references) | |
Farsi | فاسد (Corrupt, Dissolute, Gamy, Immoral, Perverse, Putrid, Rake, Rancid, Reechy, Reprobate, Rotten, Sedition, Untoward, Vicious, Vile, Villainous), نامیمون (Inauspicious, Ominous, Unblessed, Unblest), نادرست (Amiss, Dishonest, Erroneous, False, Foul, Imprecise, Impure, Inaccurate, Incorrect, Inexact, Jackleg, Spurious, Unfair, Unsound, Untrue, Vicious), کج (Askance, Askew, Awry, Crank, Crump, Devious, Gauche, Indirect, Lopsided, Sidelong, Slant, Snafu, Thwart, Wry), گمراه کننده (Screwy, Seducer, Sinuous), خطا (Error, Injustice, Lapse, Miscue, Sin, Slip, Transgression, Wrong), شیطانی (Demoniac, Devilment, Diabolic), بدیمن (Ominous, Unlucky), بدخواه (Malevolent, Malignant), بدشگون (Ominous, Unlucky). (various references) | |
French | sinistre, sénestre, inquiétant, désastreux. (various references) | |
German | unheimlich (creepy, eerie, ever so, ever such, frightening, immensely, impossibly, incredibly, scary, spooky, terribly, tremendous, uncannily, uncanny, unearthly, weird), böse (angry, bad, baddie, baleful, balefully, black, black-hearted, cross, crossly, dark, evil, evil person, ferocious, harm, mad, malign, miserable, nastily, nasty, naughty, poor, sore, unholy, venomous, vicious, villain, villainous, wicked, wicked person). (various references) | |
Greek | μοχθηρόσ (malicious, nasty, rancorous, spiteful, vicious, virulent), φαύλοσ (corrupt, flagitious, nefarious, pervert, reprobate, scoundrelly, unrighteous, vicious, vile, villain, villainous, wanton, wicked), αριστερόσ (left, left hand, sinistrous), απαίσιοσ (abominable, dreadful, execrable, flagrant, ghastly, horrid, ominous, stinking), δυσοίωνοσ (black, inauspicious, inauspiciousness, ominous, pessimistic, portentous, sinistrous). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מבשר רע (bearer of ominous tidings, hoodoo), מרושע (diabolic, evil, iniquitous, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, nefarious, unholy, vicious, vile, villainous, wicked). (various references) | |
Hungarian | vészjósló (forbidding, ill-omened, of evil omen, portentous), baljós (bodeful, eerie, hoodoo, of evil omen, ominous, sullen), baljóslatú (baleful, bodeful, inauspicious, of evil omen, ominous, portentous, unlucky). (various references) | |
Indonesian | jahat (demonic, devilish, maleficent, mean, unrighteous, villainous, wicked). (various references) | |
Italian | sinistro (grim, left, spooky, unearthly), nefasto (fatal, fateful, ill-omened, inauspicious, malign, portentous), losco (shady, sly, suspicious, unsavory, unsavoury). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 不吉 (bad luck, ill omen, inauspiciousness, ominous). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ふきつ (bad luck, ill omen, inauspiciousness, ominous). (various references) | |
Korean | 불길한 (inauspicious, unlucky). (various references) | |
Manx | toshtal (left), baggyrtagh (aggressive, blusterer, imminent, intimidating, ominous, threatener). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | inistersay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | sinistro (accident, baleful, casualty, dismal, ebon, eery, forbidding, ghastly, grisly, lurid, ominous, uncanny, untoward), aziago (ominous), ameaçador (forbidding, lowering, minacious, minatory, ominous, threatening, thunderous), agourento (bodeful, boding, ominous, portentous). (various references) | |
Romanian | sinistru (awful, awfully, calamity, catastrophe, disaster, horrible, horribly, lugubrious, lugubriously, luridly), prevestitor de rãu (evil-boding, frowning, ill fated, lurid, ominous), funest (baneful, calamitous, deadly, disastrous, fatal, fateful, feral), dãunãtor (bad, baleful, evil, hurtful, injurious, maleficent, malign, mischievous, noisome, pest, pestilent, pestilential, prejudicially). (various references) | |
Russian | зловещий (bodeful, direful, grim, ill-omened, inauspicious, ominous). (various references) | |
Scottish | ciotach (awkward, left-handed). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | zlokoban (bodeful, dark, disastrous, ill-omened, inauspicious), na levoj strani (leftward). (various references) | |
Spanish | siniestro (baleful, grim, ominous, portentous). (various references) | |
Swedish | ondskefull (baleful, fiendish, ill natured, pernicious, unholy). (various references) | |
Turkish | solundaki, soldaki (left hand, left handed, left-hand side, on the left hand side), uğursuz (accursed, accurst, baleful, black, bloody, demon, dire, evil, fateful, hoodoo, ill fated, ill-omened, inauspicious, ominous, portentous, unlucky, untoward), tekin olmayan (haunted, spookish, spooky, uncanny), meymenetsiz (inauspicious, unlucky), kem (bad, evil, haunted), kötü niyetli (baleful, gloating, ill disposed, ill-affected, ill-intentioned, malevolent, malicious, malignant, poisonous, wanton), kötü (bad, badly, black, chintzy, devilish, dread, dreadfull, evil, feeble, fierce, grotty, harmful, haunted, hedge, hellish, horrible, horrid, ill, indifferent, iniquitous, lousy, malign, mis-, miscreant, miserable, nasty, nefarious, obnoxious, off, offensive, poor, poorly, portentous, purple, rough, seamy, shady, sticky, stinking, ugly, unhallowed, unrighteous, vicious, wicked, worse, wrongful), fesat (agitator, corruption, depravity, intrigue, jaundiced, low-minded, malice, mischief, plot, poisonous), fena (angrily, bad, badly, evil, foul, ill, malicious, miserable, nasty, poor, poorly, sinful, unholy, vicious, wicked). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | нещасний (abject, disastrous, poor, unfortunate, wretched), нечесний (bad, bum, cammed, crooked, dishonest, sharking, shifty, snide, unfair, untrue), ниций (poor, rascally), зловісний (augural, bodeful, dire, disastrous, fateful, grim, inauspicious, ominous, oracular, oraculous, portentous, sinistrous, unlucky). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tả, mang điểm xấu ác, hung hãn, gở (ill-omened, portentous), độc ác (bestial, cruel, cruelly, devilish, godless, malign, venomous). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | sinister. (various references) |
| Old French | 900-1400 | sinistre. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sinister": sinisterly, sinisterness, sinisternesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Sinister" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Cisister, Finisterre, senister, Shankster, simister, sinater, sinista, siniter, sinitser, sinster, spinister. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "sinister" (pronounced si"nuster) |
| 6 | -i" n u s t er | administer, minister. |
| 5 | -n u s t er | banister, bannister, canister, cannister. |
| 4 | -u s t er | barrister, Forester, harvester, keister, kiester, register. |
| 3 | -s t er | dumpster, duster, Easter, adjuster, alabaster, ancestor, aster, blaster, blister, blockbuster, bluster, bolster, booster, broadcaster, burgomaster, Buster, caster, Castor, cloister, cluster, coaster, concertmaster, coster, Dempster, Dexter, digester, disaster, ester, faster, Feaster, fester, filibuster, fluster, forecaster, Foster, gangbuster, gangster, Gaster, grandmaster, hamster, headmaster, heister, holster, huckster, imposter, impostor, investor, jester, juster, lackluster, laster, Leister, Lister, lobster, Luster, lustre, master, Minster, Mister, mobster, molester, monster, muenster, Munster, muster, nester, Nestor, newscaster, oldster, oleaster, ouster, oyster, paster, pastor, pester, pilaster, plaster, pollster, polyester, poster, postmaster, prankster, protester, quartermaster, raster, requester, rester, ringmaster, roadster, roaster, roister, rooster, roster, royster, schoolmaster, scoutmaster, seamster, semester, sequester, shyster, sister, spinster, sportscaster, stepsister, taskmaster, taster, teamster, tester, thruster, tipster, toaster, toastmaster, transistor, trickster, trimester, twister, Ulster, upholster, waster, Webster, Wester, youngster, zoster. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: insister. | |
| Words within the letters "e-i-i-n-r-s-s-t" | |
-1 letter: estrins, inserts, sinters. | |
-2 letters: estrin, inerts, insert, insets, insist, inters, irises, niseis, niters, nitres, resins, resist, rinses, seisin, seniti, serins, sinter, sirens, sister, steins, sterns, tinier, triens, trines. | |
-3 letters: inert, inset, inter, intis, issei, neist, nerts, nests, nisei, niter, nites, nitre, reins, rents, resin, rests, rinse, risen, rises, rites, senti, serin, sines, siren. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-i-i-n-r-s-s-t" | |
+1 letter: dirtiness, disinters, insisters, ministers, misinters, resisting, ritziness, sistering. | |
+2 letters: cretinisms, disorients, disserting, fruitiness, grittiness, industries, insertions, instillers, internists, intrusives, ministries, misentries, misorients, neuritises, persisting, pinstripes, resittings, sanitaries, scrutinies, scrutinise, seminarist, sensitizer, serenities, sinisterly, sonorities, springiest, stringiest, tanistries, trickiness, wintriness. | |
+3 letters: administers, antipyresis, antistories, asterisking, dentistries, dirtinesses, discretions, disinherits, disinterest, distrainers, distressing, enteritises, gristliness, inheritress, insectaries, instituters, internships, interstices, intertwists, jitteriness, ministrokes, missteering, misstricken, natriuresis, nervosities, repositions, resensitize, reunionists, revisionist, ritzinesses, sanctifiers, scrutinised, scrutinises, scrutinizes, seminarists, seniorities, sensitizers, signatories, sincerities, spinsterish, springtides, springtimes, stridencies, stringiness, subminister, synergistic, thirstiness, thriftiness, trichinoses, tricksiness, trisections, triskelions, tristearins, unresisting, waitressing, withershins. | |
| 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. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Quotations: Familiar 11. Quotations: Historic 12. Quotations: Fiction | 13. Quotations: Non-fiction 14. Quotations: Speeches 15. Usage Frequency 16. Expressions | 17. Expressions: Internet 18. Translations: Modern 19. Translations: Ancient 20. Derivations | 21. Rhymes 22. Anagrams 23. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
