fiendish
Americanadjective
adjective
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of or like a fiend
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diabolically wicked or cruel
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informal extremely difficult or unpleasant
a fiendish problem
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fiendish
Explanation
To be fiendish is to be cruel or evil. You might choose not to watch horror films — or soap operas — if you're not a fan of seeing people do fiendish things to each other. Fiendish behavior is terrible and vicious, and fiendish people behave without kindness or conscience. An informal, less serious way to use the adjective is to mean "complicated or difficult." You might, for example, describe your fiendish calculus exam or rave about the fiendish plot in your favorite book. Fiendish comes from fiend, "evil spirit," with its Old English root feogan, "to hate."
Vocabulary lists containing fiendish
Coraline
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"The Witches" by Roald Dahl, Chapters 6–11
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The Egypt Game
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
To make up for it, he pulled out a completely different jumping pass on the fly, starting with a different quad—-and then landed another fiendish combination.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
That is good news for Inter who have a fiendish run of fixtures to close their league phase campaign, including clashes at the San Siro with Liverpool and Premier League leaders Arsenal.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2025
The only advice Ms Keast-Butler gave BBC Breakfast earlier on Wednesday was to work in a team and "bring a rich mix of minds" to the fiendish puzzle.
From BBC ● Dec. 11, 2024
In these scenes, it’s hard to take your eyes off the glinting McAvoy, who’s like some fiendish juggler of items both benign and dangerous.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2024
Then, as the four badly shaken Egyptians turned loose of each other and tried to regain their dignity, the monster and the box-man leaned on each other and choked with fiendish laughter.
From "The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
