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mischief

noun

Simple meaning

Reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort or annoyance in others.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

mischuhf

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmɪstʃəf

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort or annoyance in others

  2. uncountable

    Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.

  3. uncountable

    Harm or trouble caused by an agent or brought about by a particular cause.

  4. countable

    An injury or an instance of harm or trouble caused by a person or other agent or cause.

  5. countable

    A playfully annoying action.

  6. Australia

    Casual and/or flirtatious sexual acts.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort or annoyance in others

Used this way, mischief is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Everyday but emotionally strong

Nearby words

  • roguery , rarer, so it draws attention
  • rascality , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

malicious mischiefsome mischiefgreat mischief

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • mischief-makernounCompound term

    Someone who deliberately stirs up trouble.

  • mischief-makingnounCompound term

    Reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort or annoyance in others.

  • malicious mischiefnounCompound term

    Willful wanton and malicious destruction of the property of others.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort

rogueryRarerascalityRare

Antonyms

Sense: reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort

beneficence

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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.