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# diabolical

«diabolical» in Mova's school dictionary: **Very wicked or cruel, as if done by the Devil, as in «a…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (diabolical); adverb diabolically

### meaning for a pupil

1) Very wicked or cruel, as if done by the Devil, as in «a diabolical plan». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/#m1)

2) (UK, informal) Extremely bad or of very poor quality, as in «The traffic was diabolical». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In stories villains have «diabolical plots» and «diabolical laughs»; the word shows evil cleverness. In everyday British talk, adults use it to complain: «That refereeing was diabolical». It comes from «diabolos», Greek for devil.

### examples

- The villain revealed his diabolical plan to flood the city. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/#x1)
- The weather on our holiday was diabolical. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/#x2)
- That's a diabolical penalty decision! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/#x3)
- The witch gave a diabolical cackle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/#x4)
- My handwriting was diabolical when I was in a hurry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/#x5)
- The trap was diabolically clever. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/#x6)

### note

Said «dye-uh-BOL-ik-ul». The informal «very bad» sense is mainly British. Related: «devil», «diabolic».

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «diabolical» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.