pestilent means highly injurious or destructive to life: deadly. It carries an Arena rating of 1509, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pestilent ranks #594 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,887 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #3,208 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,234 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
pestilent is pronounced /ˈpɛstələnt/.
Why “pestilent” is a great word
Highly injurious or destructive to life, or, more generally, extremely harmful, annoying, or pernicious. From Middle English, from Latin pestilent-, pestilens ("infected, unwholesome, pestilential"), from pestis ("plague, pest, destruction"). Unlike "noxious," which implies a chemical poison or a foul fume, or "pernicious," which suggests an insidious, creeping corruption, "pestilent" carries the miasmatic weight of contagion itself. It is the swamp-air that carries fever, the rumor that empties a town, and the ideology that rots a generation's soul from within—a word whose very sound is the quiet, relentless pulse of infection.
Etymology
Middle English, from Latin pestilens, from Latin pestis.
adj
- Highly injurious or destructive to life: deadly.
- Annoying.
- Harmful to morals or public order.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- pestilently 76% match — In a pestilent manner. vs pestilent →
- pestilential 76% match — Of or relating to pestilence or plague.; Producing, spreading, promoting or infected with pestilence; causing infection. (of people, animals, places or substances) vs pestilent →
- pestilentially 75% match — In a pestilential manner; with pestilence. vs pestilent →
- pestilence 71% match — Any epidemic disease that is highly contagious, infectious, virulent and devastating. vs pestilent →
- pestilentialness 67% match — The quality of being pestilential. vs pestilent →
- unpestilential 66% match — Not pestilential. vs pestilent →
- exitious 66% match — Harmful, destructive, deadly, pernicious. vs pestilent →
- baneful 64% match — Poisonous, deadly. vs pestilent →