Meaning & use
bad person
Last updated
Meanings
phrasecountable
A person whose character is wicked or unkind, who regularly does things that hurt others.
Grammar: A noun phrase with adjective and noun, with a plural bad people: he is not a bad person.
Patterns
- a bad person
- not a bad person
He made a terrible mistake, but that does not make him a bad person.
The film's hero struggles with whether he is a bad person.
Nobody wants to feel like a bad person after ignoring a friend in need.
phrasecountableinformal
Someone whose behavior in one specific situation was morally wrong or inconsiderate.
Grammar: Often used with feel like or make me: I feel like a bad person.
Patterns
- feel like a bad person
- make someone a bad person
I feel like a bad person for forgetting her birthday.
Does lying to spare someone's feelings make you a bad person?
She worried she was a bad person for being relieved that the party was cancelled.
Word forms
| plural | bad people |
|---|
Common combinations
- not a bad person
- He is rude at times but he is not a bad person.
- feel like a bad person
- I felt like a bad person when I lied to her.
- make you a bad person
- Making one mistake does not make you a bad person.
- a genuinely bad person
- The villain in the book is a genuinely bad person.
- bad people
- The story asks why bad people sometimes succeed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wrongdoer
- Wrongdoer is formal and refers to someone who has done something wrong, not their whole character.
- villain
- Villain is a dramatic word for a wicked character in a story, stronger than bad person.
- scoundrel
- Scoundrel is old-fashioned and playful, and describes a dishonest rogue rather than a truly cruel person.
- rogue
- Rogue is a lighter word for a dishonest person who can even be charming, while bad person is plain and stronger.
Opposites
Word family
- badly adverb
- in an unpleasant or poor way
- badness noun
- the quality of being bad or wicked
Commonly confused: bad person or evil person?
bad person vs evil person
An evil person is far stronger and implies deliberate cruelty, while a bad person can simply be selfish or thoughtless.
Practice
Tom forgot his friend's birthday once, but that does not make him ______.
Choose one answer.
A singular noun phrase needs an article plus the adjective bad: a bad person. Without a, the phrase is incomplete, and badly is an adverb that cannot describe a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bad person”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.