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Word of the Day Archive
Saturday February 12, 2005

nefarious \nuh-FAIR-ee-uhs\, adjective:
Wicked in the extreme; iniquitous.

Despite involvement in protection, narcotics, strong-arm debt collecting, strikebreaking, and blackmail, among other nefarious activities, all of them professed to be a cut above mobsters in other lands.
-- Robert Whiting, Tokyo Underworld

The liar, however, can become a truly subversive and scandalous figure, whose nefarious influence may extend far more widely than her own individual actions.
-- John Forrester, Truth Games

Nefarious is from Latin nefarius, from nefas, "that which is contrary to divine command; a crime, transgression, sin," from ne-, "not" + fas, "divine command or law."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for nefarious

 

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