fiendish.

1. Extremely cruel, malicious, or wicked.

2. Exceptionally difficult, intricate, or cunningly devised.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• fiendish cruelty
• fiendish plot

On the page

The villain devised a fiendish plot.

The account condemned the fiendish cruelty.

She recoiled from the plan’s fiendish purpose.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror. Forms: More fiendish; most fiendish where gradable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.