Standard Lemma guide

demonic

adj · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: dĭmŏ'nĭk
  • UK: /dɪˈmɒnɪk/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɒnɪk
  • CMU ARPABET: D IH0 M AA1 N IH0 K Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Pertaining to demons or evil spirits; demoniac.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • Convinced that his uncle was a warlock, he rifled through his attic, looking for demonic artifacts.
  • Once he had grasped the controls, he unleashed a demonic laugh that made his hostages shudder.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: demonish, demonlike, demonly, cacodaemoniacal, daemonical, demoniac, demoniacal, demonic, demonical, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, fallen angelic, fiendlike, satanic, satanical

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Pertaining to daemons in ancient Greek thought; concerning supernatural ‘genius’.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Extremely cruel or evil; abhorrent or repugnant; diabolical.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: heartless, sadistic, baleful, malefic, foul, loathsome, barbarous, bowelless, brutal, compassionless, cruel, demonic, despiteful, diabolic, diabolical, fell, incessive, inclement, inhuman, inhumane, malicious, merciless, nasty, nonhumane, pitiless, remorseless, rotten, ruthless, savage, spiteful, truculent, unbenevolent, unbenign, unkind, unmerciful, unpitiful, unpitying, abandoned, arrant, bad, bad apple, bad seed, scurrilous, baneful, base, black-hearted, dark, deleterious, depraved, despicable, detrimental, devilish, evil, evil-minded, facinorous, flagitious, harmful, heinous, ill-intentioned, ill-natured, immoral, incorrigible, iniquitous, iniquous, injurious, knavish, maleficent, malevolent, malign, malignant, naughty, nefarious, niddering, nidering, niding, nithing, no-good, peccaminous, pernicious, reprehensible, reprobate, satanic, scathful, sinful, sinister, sordid, sullen, ungodly, unholy, vicious, vile, villainous, wicked, wrong, abhorrant, abhorrent, sickly, bum, disagreeable, disgusting, distasteful, rancid, fulsome, gooey, grim, gro, grody, gross, grotty, harsh, munted, nauseous, offensive, obnoxious, obscene, rank, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, scabrous, sickening, strident, unpleasant

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective satellite

Meaning 4

extremely evil or cruel; expressive of cruelty or befitting hell

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • something demonic in him--something that could be cruel
  • fires lit up a diabolic scene
  • diabolical sorcerers under the influence of devils
  • a fiendish despot
  • hellish torture
  • infernal instruments of war
  • satanic cruelty
  • unholy grimaces

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: diabolic, diabolical, fiendish, hellish, infernal, satanic, unholy

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Latin daemonicus, from Ancient Greek δαιμονικός (daimonikós, “possessed by a demon, sent by a demon”), from δαίμων (daímōn), equivalent to demon + -ic. Doublet of daimonic.

Across languages

Translations

41 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: демоничен (demoničen) — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Catalan: demoníac — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Dutch: demonisch — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Esperanto: demona — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Estonian: deemonlik — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Finnish: demoninen — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Finnish: pirullinen — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • French: démoniaque — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • German: dämonisch — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Hungarian: démoni — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Ido: demonala — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Interlingua: demoniac — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Irish: diabhlaí — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Italian: demonico — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Italian: demoniaco — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Latvian: dēmonisks — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Norwegian Bokmål: demonisk — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: demonisk — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Occitan: demoniac — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Old English: dēofollīċ — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Polish: demoniczny — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Polish: biesowski — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Portuguese: demoníaco — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Romanian: demonic — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Romanian: demoniac — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Russian: демони́ческий (demoníčeskij) — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Russian: дья́вольский (dʹjávolʹskij) — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Sanskrit: नारक (nāraka) — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Spanish: demoníaco — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Swedish: djävulsk — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Swedish: demonisk — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Tagalog: malademonyo — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Welsh: cythreulig — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Welsh: demonig — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Yiddish: דעמאָניש (demonish) — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Yiddish: שדימדיק (shéydimdik) — Pertaining to evil spirits
  • Esperanto: demona — Extremely cruel, evil, or abhorrent
  • Esperanto: diabla — Extremely cruel, evil, or abhorrent
  • Ido: demonatra — Extremely cruel, evil, or abhorrent
  • Yiddish: טײַוולאָניש (tayvlonish) — Extremely cruel, evil, or abhorrent
  • Yiddish: דעמאָניש (demonish) — Extremely cruel, evil, or abhorrent
Real reading context

demonic in complete knowledge articles