miscreant means lacking in conscience or moral principles; unscrupulous. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.
miscreant is pronounced /ˈmɪs.kɹi.ənt/.
Why “miscreant” is a great word
MISCREANT — [Adjective, Noun] One who is villainous or criminal, or who holds beliefs contrary to accepted doctrine. From Middle English myscreaunt, from Old French mescreant (present participle of mescreire "to disbelieve"), from mes- ("mis-") + creire ("to believe"), from Latin credere ("to believe"). First attested in the 14th century. Unlike "heretic," which denotes doctrinal defiance, or "scoundrel," a purely secular rogue, *miscreant* binds moral depravity to a failure of faith, suggesting a soul broken in its capacity to believe rightly. It is the accused refusing to recant in a torchlit square, the brigand whose cruelty is a perverse creed, and the shadowed figure whose wickedness feels doctrinal—a word for when villainy implies a cosmology of its own.
Etymology
From Middle English myscreaunt, miscreaunt, from Old French mescreant (1080) "mis-believer", present participle of mescreire "to misbelieve" (modern mécroire). Cognate with French mécréant.
adj
- Lacking in conscience or moral principles; unscrupulous.“How do we get fair treatment when confronting miscreant workers sometimes means no care at all?”
- Holding an incorrect religious belief.
noun
- One who has behaved badly, or illegally.“The teacher sent the miscreants to see the school principal.”
- One not restrained by moral principles; an unscrupulous villain.“A meagre Catchpole hurries me to fail; No Miscreant, so remorseless, ever tore
Thy Journals, Fog, or knock'd at Franklin's door”
- One who holds a false religious belief; a misbeliever.“Now wil the Chriſtian miſcreants be glad,
Ringing with ioy their ſuperſtitious belles:
And making bonfires for my ouerthrow.
But ere I die thoſe foule Idolaters
Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones, […]”