sinister means inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate. It carries an Arena rating of 1892, earned across 79 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sinister ranks #154 of 42,762 for Qualifying, #253 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #329 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #542 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
sinister is pronounced /ˈsɪ.nɪ.stə/.
Why “sinister” is a great word
Giving the impression that something harmful, evil, or ominous is happening or will happen. From the Latin word sinister ("on the left side, unlucky, inauspicious"). Unlike "ominous," which suggests a threatening portent like a storm gathering, or "malevolent," which names a deliberate intent to harm, sinister is the atmospheric suggestion of concealed malevolence. It is the glint of a blade from a shadowed alley, the too-long smile of a stranger who knows your name, the palpable chill in a room where nothing is out of place—the quiet, architectural suspicion that the world is not merely dangerous, but deliberately, deceptively arranged against you.
Etymology
From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French senestre, sinistre (“left”), from Latin sinister (“left hand”).
adj
- Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate.e.g.“bar sinister”
- Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.e.g.“sinister influences”
- Of the left side.
- Of the left side.; On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
- Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.e.g.“Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.” — 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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