邪恶

• Pinyin: xié è
• Hanzi breakdown: 邪 = 牙 + 阝(邑) (fang + settlement — deviant/evil); 恶 = 亚 + 心 (inferior + heart — moral badness, wickedness)

Meaning

Evil; wicked; malevolent. Describes a person, force, or act that is morally depraved and causes harm through deliberate malice.

A strong moral condemnation. 邪恶 is used in ethical, literary, religious, and journalistic contexts to describe the worst forms of human wrongdoing or malevolent supernatural forces. Unlike 坏 (bad), 邪恶 implies deep, intentional moral corruption rather than mere misbehaviour.

Examples

1. 这部小说通过塑造一个极度邪恶的反派角色，揭示了权力腐化与人性堕落之间的深刻关联。 By creating an extremely evil villain, the novel reveals the deep connection between the corruption of power and the downfall of human nature.
2. 历史上无数邪恶的独裁政权以意识形态之名，对无辜民众实施了系统性的迫害与屠杀。 Throughout history, countless evil dictatorships have carried out systematic persecution and massacres of innocent people in the name of ideology.
3. 面对邪恶势力的威胁，他没有选择妥协或逃避，而是挺身而出，捍卫了弱者的尊严与权益。 Faced with the threat of evil forces, he didn’t choose compromise or escape—he stepped forward and defended the dignity and rights of the vulnerable.

Usage Guide

Context: ethics, literature, politics, religion, law

Tone: negative

Do Say

• 法庭上，检察官以详实的证据揭示了被告在长达十年间系统实施的邪恶犯罪行为及其惨烈后果。(In court, the prosecutor used detailed evidence to expose the defendant's systematic pattern of malevolent criminal conduct carried out over a decade and the devastating consequences it caused.)
• 文学作品中，邪恶往往不是以凶狠的面孔出现，而是以温和、合理的面貌渗透进日常生活之中。(In literary works, evil often appears not in a ferocious guise but infiltrates everyday life in mild and seemingly reasonable forms.)

Don't Say

• 他做了邪恶的事情 — while grammatically correct, 邪恶的事情 is vague; specify the act for greater precision, e.g. 实施了邪恶的欺骗行为 or 犯下了邪恶的罪行

Origin & History

邪 (deviant/evil) + 恶 (bad/wicked) — doubly reinforcing moral condemnation; pure evil

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal