diabolic
Americanadjective
adjective
-
of, relating to, or proceeding from the devil; satanic
-
befitting a devil; extremely cruel or wicked; fiendish
-
very difficult or unpleasant
Other Word Forms
- diabolically adverb
- diabolicalness noun
- nondiabolic adjective
Etymology
Origin of diabolic
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English diabolik, from Middle French or directly from Late Latin diabolicus, from Greek diabolikós, equivalent to diábo(os) devil + -ikos -ic
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.
Thus far, it has been the only diabolic flicker he’s displayed.
From Salon • Jan. 28, 2026
Sheku Tarawallie, president of Sierra Leone's Council of Traditional Healers, is adamant that "diabolic" juju men like Kanu are giving healers a bad name.
From BBC • Nov. 23, 2025
The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were diabolic and diabolical.
From New York Times • Apr. 7, 2023
To crown all, this imaginative anthology even makes room for Arthur Machen’s dizzyingly phantasmagoric “The White People,” and that chilling fairy tale of diabolic temptation, Lucy Clifford’s “The New Mother.”
From Washington Post • Feb. 23, 2021
His implacable marshaling of facts and his logic had something of a new dialectic, diabolic in its force.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
