What is the Latin word for evil?

The usual Latin words for “evil” are malus, incommodus, pōnō; also dūcō, prāvus, nēquiter. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

English → Latin

“evil” in Latin

malusunpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad; unpleasant to the senses, sight, smell, taste, touch; bad, evil, wicked, m incommodusinconvenient, unsuitable, unfit, unseasonable; troublesome, disagreeable pōnōto place; to put; to lay; to ordain; to appoint; to make (something); to set up; to pitch (camp)dūcōto lead, guide, conduct, lead away; to take; to draw, pull prāvuscrooked, deformed; depraved, perverse, wicked; vicious, wrong, bad, improper nēquiterbadly; wickedly

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

evil s.

malum (general term): incommodum (unpleasant occurrence, state, etc.). To be an evil, in malis esse: to look upon anything as an evil, aliquid in malis habere, ponere or ducere: to increase an evil, malum augere (to increase an evil one is already suffering); malum malo addere (to add a new evil to one already existing): you would but increase the evil, in ulcere tamquam unguis exsisteres (Prov., Cic., Dom., 5, 12): one evil follows another, vara vibiam sequitur (Prov., Auson., Praef. ad Monosyll., after 17 Idyll.): no evil happened to him, nihil mali accidit ei; so incommodum accidit (Cic.): to speak evil of anybody, male loqui alicui (Terentianus, Phorm., 2, 3, 25); maledicere alicui; maledlce contumelioseque dicere de aliquo (Cic.); maledice et maligne loqui (Liv., 45, 39, 5): to wish anybody evil, male velle alicui (Plaut., Asin., 5, 1, 13). May evil overtake Antonius! Liv. Antonio male sit! To be plotting evil (against anybody), male cogitare (de aliquo; Cic., Sen., 6): you are a messenger of evil, male narras (Cic.); acerbum nuncium perferre (alicui, Cic.): to ward off, lessen, avoid an evil, incommodum rejicere, deminuere, devitare (Cic., Invent., 2, 5, 18): to remedy an evil one has suffered, incommodum acceptum sarcire (aliqua re): there are so many evils in life, that, etc., ita multa sunt incommoda in vita, ut etc.: they not only suffered no evil, but, etc., non modo incommodi nihil ceperunt, sed etiam etc.

evil adv.

male: prave: nequiter.

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for evil?: The usual Latin words for “evil” are malus, incommodus, pōnō; also dūcō, prāvus, nēquiter. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.