worse

English

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /wɜːs/
• (US) IPA: /wɝs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s

Etymology

Old English wyrsa

Adjective

worse

1. comparative form of bad: more bad

   Your exam results are worse than before.

   The harder you try, the worse you do.

2. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) More ill.

   She was very ill last week but this week she’s worse.

3. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Of lower quality, less desirable.
4. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) More severe or serious.
5. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) More evil.

Translations

comparative form of bad

• Arabic: أسوأ (ar) ('áswa')
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 更壞 (cmn), 更坏 (cmn) (gèng huài), 更糟 (cmn) (gèng zāo), 比較壞 (cmn), 比较坏 (cmn) (bǐjiào huài)

• Czech: horší (cs)
• Danish: værre (da)
• Dutch: slechter (nl), erger (nl)
• Esperanto: pli malbona (eo)
• French: pire (fr), plus mauvais (fr)
• German: schlechter (de), schlimmer (de)
• Italian: peggiore (it)

• Japanese: さらに。。。悪い (ja) (sara ni...warui), もっと悪い (ja) (もっとわるい, motto warui), いっそう悪い (ja) (いっそうわるい, issō warui), より悪い (ja) (...yori warui)
• Korean: 더 나쁜 (doe nappun)
• Latin: peior (la)
• Norwegian: verre (no)
• Persian: بدتر (fa) (badtar)
• Polish: gorszy m
• Portuguese: pior (pt)
• Russian: хуже (ru) (xuže)
• Spanish: peor (es)
• Swedish: värre (sv)

Derived terms

• go from bad to worse
• worse for wear

Related terms

• worst

Adverb

worse

1. comparative form of badly: more badly

   He drives worse than anyone I know.

2. comparative form of ill: more ill

   He's worse-mannered than she is.

3. Less skillfully.
4. More severely or seriously.
5. (sentence adverb) Used to start a sentence describing something that is worse.

   Her leg is infected. Still worse, she's developing a fever.

Verb

worse (third-person singular simple present worses, present participle worsing, simple past and past participle worsed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.

   Weapons more violent, when next we meet, / May serve to better us and worse our foes. — Milton.

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: isn't · board · associated · #976: worse · safe · main · q

Noun

worse

1. (obsolete) Loss; disadvantage; defeat.
   • Bible, Kings xiv. 12

     Judah was put to the worse before Israel.

2. That which is worse; something less good.

   Do not think the worse of him for his enterprise.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Anagrams

• owers, resow, serow, sorwe, sower, sowre, swore, WOREs