恶劣

• Pinyin: è liè
• Hanzi breakdown: 恶 = 亚 + 心 — bad/morally inferior; 劣 = 少 (few/lacking) + 力 (strength) — lacking in strength and quality, inferior

Meaning

Terrible; vile; extremely bad. Describing conditions, behaviour, or circumstances that are severely unpleasant or morally unacceptable.

恶劣 is stronger than 不好 (not good) and carries a moral or evaluative charge. Common collocations: 条件恶劣 (harsh conditions), 态度恶劣 (appalling attitude), 天气恶劣 (terrible weather), 影响恶劣 (severe negative impact). It often implies a degree of outrage or condemnation.

Examples

1. 施工工人在恶劣的天气条件下坚持作业，保证了工程进度不受影响。 Construction workers kept working in harsh weather to ensure the project stayed on schedule.
2. 该员工对客户的态度极其恶劣，公司已依据规定对其进行了正式处分。 The employee’s attitude toward customers was extremely poor, and the company has issued formal disciplinary action in accordance with policy.
3. 恶劣的生长环境并没有阻止这片荒地上野草顽强地生长。 The harsh growing conditions did not stop weeds from growing tenaciously on this wasteland.

Usage Guide

Context: environment, behaviour, working conditions, law

Tone: critical

Do Say

• 调查人员在报告中指出，该企业长期在恶劣条件下强迫工人超时劳动，严重违反了劳动法律法规。(Investigators noted in the report that the enterprise had long forced workers to work excessive overtime under terrible conditions, in serious violation of labour laws and regulations.)
• 恶劣天气下仍坚守岗位的急救人员、消防队员和道路抢修工人，理应得到社会更多的关注与认可。(Emergency responders, firefighters, and road repair workers who remain at their posts in terrible weather deserve more attention and recognition from society.)

Don't Say

• 这道菜的味道恶劣 — 恶劣 is reserved for conditions, attitudes, and behaviour in formal or objective contexts; for unpleasant food use 极差 or 难以下咽; applying 恶劣 to taste sounds stilted

Origin & History

恶 (bad) + 劣 (inferior/poor quality) — a doubly emphatic compound describing something that is both bad and of inferior quality

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal