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English (UK)

Meaning of bad in English

bad
adjective
uk
/bæd/ us
/bæd/

bad adjective (UNPLEASANT)

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A1 comparative worse | superlative worst
unpleasant and causing difficulties:
in a bad mood Watch out - he's in a bad mood.
bad news We've just received some very bad news.
bad weather Our holiday was spoiled by bad weather.
The company has been getting a lot of bad publicity (= negative things have been written or said about it) recently.
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
bad weather, conditions, situations, etc.
  • badIf the weather is bad, we'll have to find something else to do.
  • poorShe's 87 and in poor health.
  • direThe predictions for the economy are dire.
  • grimShe was quickly brought back to the grim reality of her life.
  • awfulThe smell from the bins was awful.
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Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
having a bad result or outcome
  • seriousHer condition is not thought to be serious.
  • badHe got a bad case of food poisoning.
  • bigOnline fraud is a big problem.
  • majorIt's not a major problem, but it does need to be taken care of.
  • graveThe public are in grave danger.
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More examplesFewer examples
  • I had a really bad dream.
  • The rain is getting worse.
  • Have you had a bad day?
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Serious and unpleasant
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bad adjective (LOW QUALITY)

A2 comparative worse | superlative worst
of low quality, or not acceptable:
bad behaviour He was sent home from school for bad behaviour.
bad habit He has some very bad habits.
bad manners In some parts of the world, it is considered bad manners to pick up food with the left hand.
in bad taste That remark was in pretty bad taste, wasn't it?
The plumber did a bad job on the repairs.
Their problems were mainly caused by bad judgment.
I had a very bad night (= did not sleep well).
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
bad at something
  • bad atI was overweight and bad at sport.
  • hopelessI’m completely hopeless in the kitchen.
  • uselessUK He’s useless at maths.
  • rubbishUK She’s a pretty rubbish singer, really.
  • incompetentThe rules have made it hard to remove incompetent teachers.
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Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
of bad quality
  • badThe food wasn’t as bad as I’d expected.
  • poorTheir efforts produced extremely poor results.
  • low/poor/bad qualityTheir sausages are made with low-quality meat.
  • mediocreThe striker has been dropped after a mediocre performance.
  • inferiorThe copies are of inferior quality.
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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Not of good quality
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bad adjective (UNSUCCESSFUL)

not successful, or not able to do something well:
bad at I'm very bad at cooking.
Business has been bad this year.
Everyone thinks I'm a bad driver.
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
not producing a desired result
  • unsuccessfulOur attempts to change the law were unsuccessful.
  • failedThe company went bankrupt pouring money into yet another failed product.
  • badSales have been really bad this quarter.
  • fruitlessAll our pleas that she remain in university were fruitless - she left anyway.
  • unfruitfulThe negotiations were unfruitful.
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More examplesFewer examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Unsuccessful (people and things)
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bad adjective (SEVERE)

severe or serious:
The damage caused by the storm was nowhere near as bad as we'd feared it might be.
It was nothing like as bad as he said it would be.
The queues were so bad that I didn't bother waiting.
a bad cough
More examplesFewer examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Serious and unpleasant
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bad adjective (UNHEALTHY)

damaging to health:
Breathing in other people's cigarette smoke is bad for you.
They have a bad diet.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Dangerous and harmful
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bad adjective (EVIL)

B1 comparative worse | superlative worst
(of people or actions) evil or morally unacceptable:
There are a lot of bad people in the world.
He has his faults but he's not a bad person.
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
a bad person, action, etc.
  • badA very bad man is getting what he deserves.
  • evilHe was an evil dictator who murdered his own people.
  • wickedRapunzel was trapped inside a tower by a wicked witch.
  • awfulShe was truly awful to him through their entire marriage.
  • terribleHe was a terrible husband.
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More examplesFewer examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Morally wrong and evil
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bad adjective (UNSUITABLE)

not suitable or not convenient:
This is a bad time for me to talk. Can I call you back later?
She arrived at the worst possible moment.
More examplesFewer examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Unsuitable and unacceptable
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bad adjective (PAINFUL)

C1 comparative worse | superlative worst
causing or experiencing pain:
She can't walk up all those steps, not with her bad leg!
I've got a bad head this morning.
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
painful
  • painfulHer ankle was still painful if she put weight on it.
  • soreMy feet are sore from walking around all day.
  • tenderThe glands in my neck feel really tender.
  • sensitiveMy face was bright red and sensitive to the touch.
  • excruciatingHis injury caused excruciating headaches.
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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Pain & painful
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bad adjective (DECAYED)

B2
harmful to eat because of being decayed:
The authorities blamed the deaths on bad meat.
Some sellers would cunningly put good fruit on top of bad.
go bad We'd better eat this chicken before it goes bad.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Not pleasant to eat or drink
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Related word

badness

Grammar

Good at, bad at
We use adjective + at to talk about things that we do well or badly: …

Idioms

be in a bad way
feel bad
give something up as a bad job
go from bad to worse
not bad
not (too) bad
bad
adverb
US
uk
/bæd/ us
/bæd/
informal for badly (= very much):
He needs the money real bad.
My arm hurts so bad.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Linguistics: very & extreme
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Idiom

have (got) it bad
bad
noun [ U ]
uk
/bæd/ us
/bæd/
things or events that are not good or that are morally wrong:
She only ever sees the bad in people.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Morally wrong and evil
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Idioms

go to the bad
my bad
take the bad with the good
to the bad
(Definition of bad from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

bad | American Dictionary

bad
adjective
us
/bæd/
comparative worse us/wɜrs/ | superlative worst us/wɜrst/

bad adjective (UNPLEASANT)

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not good; disappointing or unpleasant, or causing difficulties or harm:
We heard the bad news about Dorothy’s illness.
Flights were delayed because of bad weather.
Too much salt is bad for you (= has a harmful effect on your health).
Bad can also mean serious or severe:
a bad accident/storm

bad adjective (LOW QUALITY)

of very low quality; not acceptable:
bad manners
We thought the hotel was bad and the food was terrible.
That was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.

bad adjective (EVIL)

(of people or actions) evil or morally unacceptable:
He’s not a bad person.

bad adjective (UNHEALTHY)

(of a person) ill or not well, or (of an illness) serious or severe:
a bad back/heart
a bad cough
bad health
He’s in really bad shape.
He’s got bad arthritis and can hardly walk.

Idiom

not (too) bad
(Definition of bad from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

bad | Business English

bad
noun
  FINANCE
uk
/bæd/ us
to the bad
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if you are a particular amount of money to the bad, you have lost or owe that amount:
The bank has a positive deficiency of €376,900 with a possibility of its being over half a million to the bad.
(Definition of bad from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of bad

bad
It is too bad that this purely internal data structure must be 'mentioned' in the interface.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The asset portfolio can incorporate bad outcomes that are relatively independent of economic wellbeing, such as psychological distress.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
He correctly points out that localist representations have unfairly received a bad reputation.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Who collects and what is reported may be at best random or at worst deliberately false.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Note that intractability assumptions for random instances are much stronger than complexity-theoretic assumptions, which usually refer only to the worst case.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In the case of random walks in convex bodies, we show that this new bound is better than the known bounds for the worst case.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Admittedly, the creation of such commissions is frequently symbolic politics at its worst, giving the appearance of official activity but ultimately changing nothing.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Subjects were asked to report ' worst lifetime ' symptoms.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
They protect us, help us - without them, things would be much worse for us.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Based on a potential error message, they might modify a word or a sentence that is not in fact wrong and hence make things worse.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Regardless of how they actually speak, then, these students are perceived as speaking "worse" than other students.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The log(likelihood) is substantially worse, reflecting the large sample size in the simulation.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
At worst, a great many copies of the same object could be built in this way, substantially increasing the space usage of the program.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In this institutional struggle, some groups will end up supporting their second preference in order to avoid an even worse outcome.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
He recognised that his options were getting worse with each passing day, and he spoke somewhat pathetically of resignation.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
See all examples of bad
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
What is the pronunciation of bad?
 

Translations of bad

in Chinese (Traditional)
不愉快的, 壞的，不好的, 令人不悅的…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
不愉快的, 坏的，不好的, 令人不悦的…
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in Spanish
malo, grave, mal…
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in Portuguese
mau, ruim, grave…
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in Italian
खराब, वाईट, लोकांचे वर्तन किंवा कृती वाईट किंवा नैतिकदृष्��्या अस्वीकार्य असणे…
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悪い, ひどい, 粗悪な…
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hoş olmayan, nahoş, kötü…
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gravement, sérieusement, mauvais/-aise…
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dolent, mal, greu…
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slecht, bedorven, zwak…
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விரும்பத்தகாத மற்றும் சிரமங்களை ஏற்படுத்தும், குறைந்த தரம், அல்லது ஏற்றுக்கொள்ளக் கூடியது அல்ல…
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बुरा, खराब, (गुणवत्ता में) बुरा…
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ખરાબ, અણગમતું, નબળું…
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dårlig, slem, ond…
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dålig, ond, usel…
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tidak cekap, jahat, tidak baik…
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schlecht, böse, schlimm…
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dårlig, lei, skadelig…
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خراب, بُرا, بُری…
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поганий, негарний, аморальний…
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плохой, серьезный, неудачный…
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బాగా లేని, బాధాకరమైన, అప్రియమైన మరియు కష్టాలకు కారణమైన…
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سَيِّء, رَديء, خَطير…
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খারাপ, অপ্রীতিকর এবং অসুবিধা সৃষ্টি করে, নিম্ন মানের…
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špatný, zlý, zkažený…
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buruk, jahat, tidak menyenangkan…
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ไม่ดี, เลว, เน่าเปื่อย…
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xấu, dở, tồi…
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zły, niedobry, niegrzeczny…
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안 좋은, 형��� 없는, 심각한…
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cattivo, brutto, scadente…
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bad
bad actor
bad apple
bad asset
bad bank

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accommodation

UK
/əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/
US
/əˌkɑː.məˈdeɪ.ʃən/

a place to stay or live

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Worthy and wicked (Words meaning ‘good’ and ‘bad’)

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