bad
Usage
What are other ways to say bad?
When describing things that are lacking in moral qualities or are actually vicious and reprehensible, bad is the broadest and simplest term: a bad man; bad habits. Evil applies to that which violates or leads to the violation of moral law: evil practices. Ill now appears mainly in certain fixed expressions, with a milder implication than that in evil: ill will; ill-natured. Wicked implies willful and determined doing of what is very wrong: a wicked plan.
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:
“He’s cautious about how he reacts. … He doesn’t want people getting ideas on whether something is good or bad because he understands others have better product sense.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026
It was, experts agreed, a bad look for the company.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
The bad news was that it took 15-25 years to recover in almost all financial dimensions.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
"I felt so stupid. I trusted and I cared about people that did bad things. I don't ever want to be as blindsided as I was by them not being who they said they were."
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
“I know this town is already pretty bad, but we’re supposed to be getting better, not worse.”
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
"We often look at a pattern or grouping that has a relationship with better or worse outcomes rather than just looking at a single molecule."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 29, 2026
It was always likely Pakistan would improve on their performance from Leeds, simply because the tourists could not play much worse.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Would you say things turned out better or worse than the future you predicted in “Life During Wartime”? Well, we’re not having a total civil war.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
Europe is experiencing a fiscal crisis in some ways worse than America’s despite having the VAT.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
I’m not able to sleep, and the idea of doing nothing seems worse than the idea of something, no matter how far-fetched that something is.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Yet the company excluded the majority of those harms from its public reports, designing its metrics so that many of the worst encounters were never captured.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
Murielle wants to believe that the worst is now behind.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
Using AI tools to decide on a Medicare Advantage plan may be complicated at best and inaccurate at worst, analysts said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
It was one of the worst financial disasters in American history, leading to the creation of the Federal Reserve.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
It was the worst night of the year—when human children came from all over the village to surround Clare’s wood.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
Vocabulary lists containing bad
