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# diabolical

adjective (diabolical); adverb diabolically

«diabolical» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. Very wicked or cruel, as if done by the Devil, as in «a diabolical plan». [tree →](https://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://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/#m2)

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

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «diabolical» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/diabolical/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«diabolical» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/diabolical.html) on Mova free.