baleful means portending evil; ominous. It carries an Arena rating of 1843, earned across 13 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, baleful ranks #122 of 42,762 for Qualifying, #565 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,451 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,967 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
baleful is pronounced /ˈbeɪl.fəl/.
Why “baleful” is a great word
Portending or causing evil, harm, or distress. From Middle English baleful, from Old English bealuful, equivalent to bealu ("evil, woe, harm") + -ful ("full of"). Unlike "malevolent," which implies an active, calculating ill will, or "ominous," which merely foreshadows, "baleful" describes a present and potent atmosphere of threat. It is the sickly green light that falls from a thunderhead, the fixed and silent stare of a predator from the edge of the firelight, the slow, inexorable spread of a stain across a map—a word not for the intention of evil, but for its palpable and inescapable aura, the sense that harm has already arrived and is simply waiting to be acknowledged.
Etymology
From Middle English baleful, balful, baluful, from Old English bealuful, which was equivalent to bealu + -ful. By surface analysis, bale (“evil, woe”) + -ful. See bale for further etymology.
adj
- Portending evil; ominous.e.g.“The street-lamps burn amid the baleful glooms,
Amidst the soundless solitudes immense
Of ranged mansions dark and still as tombs.” — 1873, James Thomson (B.V.), The City of Dreadful Night:
- Miserable, wretched, distressed, suffering.e.g.“Thou balefull Messenger, out of my sight:” — 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[w
- Deadly, mortal.e.g.“With balefull weedes, and precious Iuiced flowers, / The earth that's Natures mother, is her Tombe,” — c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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