demon
noun
Simple meaning
An evil spirit resident in or working for Hell.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
deemuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdimən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An evil spirit resident in or working for Hell; a devil.
An evil supernatural spirit.
A cruel wicked and inhuman person
A very wicked or malevolent person; also (in weakened sense) a mischievous person, especially a child.
A spirit not considered to be inherently evil; a (non-Christian) deity or supernatural being.
A source (especially personified) of great evil or wickedness; a destructive feeling or character flaw.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An evil spirit resident in or working for Hell; a devil.
Used this way, demon is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use demon
- “He worked like a demon to finish the job on time.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An imaginary creature that controls a small hole in a partition that divides a chamber filled with gas into two parts and allows fast molecules to move in one direction and slow molecules…
A driver who exceeds the safe speed limit.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: evil spirit resident in or working for Hell
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.