vicious

Word family

• viciously
  adverbB2
• viciousness
  nounC1
• vice
  nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words describe causing harm, but they differ in scope and focus. Cruel is the broadest term — it covers any action that makes another person or animal suffer, whether physical or emotional, and whether done deliberately or carelessly. Brutal emphasizes physical harshness and a lack of mercy, often describing violence that is shockingly rough. Savage suggests wild, uncontrolled ferocity, as if the person has lost all civilized restraint — a savage attack is indiscriminate and extremely violent. Malicious focuses on the deliberate intention behind the harm: a malicious comment is carefully designed to hurt someone's feelings. While vicious overlaps with all four, it uniquely combines the violence of brutal/savage with the deliberate ill will of malicious. For example, a vicious rumor is both intentionally harmful (malicious) and damaging (cruel), but calling it brutal or savage would sound unnatural because rumors are not physical acts.

Common collocations

Etymology

Vicious comes from the Latin word 'vitiosus', meaning 'faulty, defective, or corrupt,' which in turn comes from 'vitium' ('fault, vice'). It entered English through Old French 'vicieus' in the 1300s. At first it meant 'morally corrupt or depraved.' Over time the meaning shifted from moral fault to the violent, harmful behavior that such fault was thought to produce. By the 1500s it was used for savage animals and violent people. The sense of 'extremely severe' (a vicious headache) developed in the 1700s, extending the idea of harm from moral character to physical intensity.