English Explanatory Dictionary

sinister

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj

Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate.
Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.
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.

Pronunciation

sĭn′ĭ-stər /ˈsɪ.nɪ.stə/ /ˈsɪ.nɪ.stəɹ/ /ˈsə.nə.stə/ sĭ-nĭ′stər /sɪˈnɪ.sʈə(ɾ)/ en-us-sinister.ogg en-au-sinister.ogg

Word forms

sinister more sinister most sinister sinistre

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *senh₂- Proto-Indo-European *senh₂-is-? Proto-Italic *senisteros Latin sinister Late Latin sinextrum Old French senestrebor. Middle English sinistre English sinister From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French senestre, sinistre (“left”), from Latin sinister (“left hand”).

Synonyms

foreboding portentous augurous baleful bodeful boding dire disastrous divine fatal ill-boding ill-fated ill-omened ill-starred inauspicate inauspicious nefastous omenic ominous brooding presageful presagious prodigious sinister star-crossed sullen malicious malevolent abandoned arrant bad bad apple bad seed scurrilous baneful base black-hearted dark deleterious demonic depraved despicable detrimental devilish diabolical evil evil-minded facinorous flagitious harmful heinous ill-intentioned ill-natured immoral incorrigible iniquitous iniquous injurious knavish malefic

Antonyms

dexter

Derived words

ambisinister ambisinistrous bar sinister baton sinister bend sinister sinister aspect sinister chief sinisterism sinisterity sinisterly sinisterness sinisterwise sinistral sinistrous unsinister

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

Back to search All on S Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary