viciousness

V4I1C3I1O1U1S1N1E1S1S1

noun

The characteristic of being vicious.

UncommonScrabble 16

Meanings

nounviciousness (countable and uncountable, plural viciousnesses)

plural viciousnesses

  1. countableuncountableThe characteristic of being vicious.

    Synonyms: viciosity, vitiosity

  2. countableuncountableThe desire to cause harm to others; extreme cruelty.
    1 more example

    “It is hard. And there is a level of viciousness that I was not expecting. I was not expecting the intensity of this experience, but this isn’t supposed to be easy. My father and this administration intends to be transformative, and we want to do big, bold things and we’re looking to change the status quo. So I didn’t expect it to be easy. I think some of the distractions and some of the ferocity was — I was a little blindsided by on a personal level,” she said.

    2017 June 12, Betsy Klein, quoting Ivanka Trump, “Ivanka Trump: ‘There is a level of viciousness that I was not expecting’”, in CNN, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2017

Synonyms & antonyms

nounThe characteristic of being vicious.

More synonyms by meaning

nounthe trait of extreme cruelty

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Middle Englishviciousnesse
  2. Middle Englishviciousnesse
  3. Englishviciousness

Inherited from Middle English viciousnesse; equivalent to vicious + -ness.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian порочност
  • порочност (poročnost)the characteristic of being vicious
Chinese Mandarin 邪恶, 不道德
  • 邪恶 (xié'è)the characteristic of being vicious
  • 不道德 (bùdàodé)the characteristic of being vicious
  • 恶意 (èyì)the desire to cause harm to others; extreme cruelty
  • 险恶 (xiǎn'è)the desire to cause harm to others; extreme cruelty
Esperanto brutaleco, maliceco
  • brutalecothe characteristic of being vicious
  • malicecothe desire to cause harm to others; extreme cruelty
Spanish saña
  • sañathe desire to cause harm to others; extreme cruelty
Cite this entry
APA

viciousness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/viciousness

MLA

“viciousness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/viciousness. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “viciousness,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/viciousness.

Source: viciousness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.