adj
Meaning 1
Causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: subtle
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
insidious
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.
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/ɪnˈsɪdi.əs/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɪdiəs
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CMU ARPABET: IH2 N S IH1 D IY2 AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Intending to entrap; alluring but harmful.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- Hansel and Gretel were lured by the witch’s insidious gingerbread house.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Meaning 3
Treacherous.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: nonstandard
Examples
- The battle was lost due to the actions of insidious defectors.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: perfidious, proditorious, traitorous, booky, dastardly, disleal, disloyal, double-crossing, double-dealing, double-faced, double-hearted, doublehearted, faithless, false, falseheart, false-hearted, guiled, guileful, hollow-hearted, illoyal, infidelitous, insidious, Judaslike, Judasly, nonfaithful, proditory, Punic, ratlike, recreant, renegade, reptilian, reptitious, swike, traitorish, traitorlike, traitorly, traitorsome, treacherous, treachersome, trothless, unfaithful, unleal, unloyal, unsteadfast, untrue, viperish, viperous
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 4
working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- glaucoma is an insidious disease
- a subtle poison
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: pernicious, subtle
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 5
intended to entrap
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 6
beguiling but harmful
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- insidious pleasures
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From Middle French insidieux, from Latin īnsidiōsus (“cunning, artful, deceitful”), from īnsidiae (“a lying in wait, an ambush, artifice, stratagem”) + -ōsus, from īnsideō (“to sit in or on”), from in (“in, on”) + sedeō (“to sit”).
Across languages
Translations
48 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Armenian: նենգ (neng) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Bulgarian: коварен (kovaren) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Chinese Mandarin: 陰險 /阴险 (yīnxiǎn) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Chinese Mandarin: 狡詐 /狡诈 (jiǎozhà) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Chinese Mandarin: 潛移默化的 /潜移默化的 (qiányímòhuà de) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Czech: zákeřný — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Danish: lumsk — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Dutch: sluipend — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Dutch: verraderlijk — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Esperanto: insida — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Finnish: salakavala — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- French: insidieux — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- German: heimtückisch — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- German: schleichend — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Italian: insidioso — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Khmer: ដែលបញ្ឆោត (dael bɑɲchaot) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Latin: insidiosus — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Macedonian: подмолен (podmolen) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Māori: toropuku — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Polish: podstępny — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Polish: zdradliwy — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Polish: zdradziecki — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Portuguese: insidioso — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Romanian: insidios — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Russian: кова́рный (kovárnyj) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Russian: скры́тый (skrýtyj) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Russian: хи́трый (xítryj) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Serbo-Croatian: шкодљив — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Serbo-Croatian: škodljiv — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Spanish: insidioso — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Swedish: försåtlig — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Swedish: lömsk — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Turkish: sinsice — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Ottoman Turkish: آصمق (asmak) — causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner
- Bulgarian: лукав (lukav) — intending to entrap
- Bulgarian: коварен (kovaren) — intending to entrap
- Catalan: insidiós — intending to entrap
- Finnish: juonikas — intending to entrap
- Finnish: salakavala — intending to entrap
- German: heimtückisch — intending to entrap
- German: hinterhältig — intending to entrap
- German: hinterlistig — intending to entrap
- Ingrian: salakavala — intending to entrap
- Italian: subdolo — intending to entrap
- Portuguese: insidiador — intending to entrap
- Russian: кова́рный (kovárnyj) — intending to entrap
- Spanish: insidioso — intending to entrap
- Swedish: förrädisk — intending to entrap