flagitious

American  

[fluh-jish-uhs] / fləˈdʒɪʃ əs /

adjective

1. shamefully wicked, as persons, actions, or times.

2. heinous or flagrant, as a crime; infamous.

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flagitious British  

/ fləˈdʒɪʃəs /

adjective

1. atrociously wicked; vicious; outrageous

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Other Word Forms

• flagitiously adverb
• flagitiousness noun
• nonflagitious adjective
• nonflagitiously adverb
• nonflagitiousness noun
• unflagitious adjective

Etymology

Origin of flagitious

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English flagicious, from Latin flāgitiōsus, equivalent to flāgiti(um) “shame, scandal” + -ōsus -ous

Explanation

Flagitious is a fancy and forceful word for "wicked and nasty." As sheriff, it's up to you to bring the flagitious outlaws to justice. Remember that flagitious has three syllables and the "t" is pronounced like "sh" (similar to "ambitious"). Use flagitious when you want to emphasize the extremely brutal nature of a crime or other bad action. The crime scene photos showed the results of actions so flagitious you could not bear to look at them.

Example Sentences

To applaud the sadists, voyeurs and media manipulators masquerading as directors, actors and writers is as misguided as were the lives of that flagitious couple.

From Time Magazine Archive

Boötes 'mid the Triönes had bent “His wain with sloping pole; when Myrrha came “To her flagitious crime.

From The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II by Howard, J. J.

Up to that period, so far as government was concerned, a man might have been unprincipled and flagitious.

From Popular Education For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes by Mayhew, Ira

Gossip—which had become differentiated from scandal, because of a wider variety of subjects to chatter about than flagitious conduct, occupied a large proportion of the time of the women.

From Women of England by James, Bartlett Burleigh

Suspicious that Rebel citizens within our lines were more or less implicated in this and other raids, quite a number of arrests were made among them, which cleared the country of the most flagitious cases.

From Three Years in the Federal Cavalry by Glazier, Willard W.