adjective
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harmful, menacing, or vindictive
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archaic dejected
Other Word Forms
- balefully adverb
- balefulness noun
Etymology
Origin of baleful
before 1000; Middle English; Old English bealofull. See bale 2, -ful
Explanation
Baleful means the foreshadowing of tragic or evil events. If no one's listening in class and your teacher reprimands you with a baleful glance, expect a pop quiz. If your car breaks down and you take refuge in a deserted mansion, you might huddle under a dusty blanket and find yourself thinking that the wind moaning at the windows sounds baleful — maybe it's really the voice of a young woman murdered in the very bed where you sleep?
Vocabulary lists containing baleful
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 1–7
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But it would be a mistake to think that Duesberg’s baleful influence on medical science will end with his death.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 29, 2026
Mr. Icke’s expansion of the cast of characters does not really enrich the elemental drama, but it hardly needs to, given the baleful nature of the narrative.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025
That’s the crux of horror flick “Good Boy,” in which Indy the retriever detects a baleful force that his human can’t see.
From Salon • Oct. 3, 2025
The details of Knight's upbringing were not disclosed in court, but Judge Richardson described them as "baleful".
From BBC • Sep. 5, 2025
But on Tuesday, when the post-Memorial Day week begins, my life seems real enough again in a gray and baleful way.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
