naughty
Americanadjective
-
(esp of children or their behaviour) mischievous or disobedient; bad
-
mildly indecent; titillating
noun
Usage
What does naughty mean? Naughty means disobedient, mischievous, or generally misbehaving, particularly when applied to children. Naughty is usually used in reference to misbehavior that’s minor or mischievous, as opposed to more serious disobedience. In this way, it’s also sometimes applied to pets. Example: If you kids start to get naughty before bedtime, I’m going to take away your TV privileges. In a much different context, naughty is used to describe things that are sexually suggestive, as in naughty jokes, or things that pertain to sex, often in a way that’s hidden, forbidden, or secret. In this way, it is often used playfully or as a euphemism (a milder substitute of what is being referred to). Example: Oh my God, have you two been doing naughty stuff in the supply shed?
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of naughty
Explanation
Naughty describes someone — or someone’s pet — who is disobedient, bad, rascally, or otherwise poorly behaved. You might remember the word naughty by the way it sounds; think of it as containing the sound "not" as in "Naughty is what you get called when you get caught doing something you were NOT supposed to do!" While naughtiness may be in the eye of the beholder, every human culture seems to have its own version of naughty. For instance, those who celebrate Christmas and want to be on Santa’s “nice” list better avoid any naughty behaviors!
Vocabulary lists containing naughty
Words from Shakespearean Insults
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Oh, No! Synonyms for "Bad"
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Let's Go Caroling, List 2
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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.
See Examples For:
GTA III in 2001 was a naughty revelation—a first-person, three-dimensional, open world of beauty and barbarity.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
His tics are not naughty mischief but an uncontrollable action.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026
"Naughty boys do naughty things, and in his older age he did the right thing," she said.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
"We can be naughty, we can be mischievous, we can be cheeky, we can have fun, we can have great banter too," he says.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2026
He ordered the spirits to line up like naughty children in front of an elder.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Made when Murphy was at peak stardom, the John Landis-directed romantic comedy plays like a dispatch from a more innocent era — and also, paradoxically, a naughtier, less inhibited one.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2021
“She just kept on getting naughtier and more challenging,” she said.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 21, 2020
His creations work equally well on the gallery wall, hung salon-style at Anton Kern in New York, or on Instagram, where the images are stripped down, even more existential and sometimes naughtier.
From New York Times ● May 6, 2020
Amundeep admits she was the naughtier of the pair.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2015
And I was way naughtier than either of my cousins.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
The naughtiest Magnificent Seven stock is clearly Tesla.
From Barron's ● Dec. 25, 2025
But my colleague Geoffrey A. Fowler recently reported on the country’s naughtiest internet providers and he found:
From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2023
Johnson claimed he had been asked to say what was the naughtiest thing he was prepared to admit, rather than the naughtiest thing he had ever done.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2019
Last year, she told an interviewer that the naughtiest thing she did as a child was to “run through fields of wheat.”
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 23, 2018
“All this stuff you’re doing. You’re probably the naughtiest student there’s ever been in our school. And you’re doing it all to save him.”
From "Wringer" by Jerry Spinelli
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.
