Standard Lemma guide

naughty

adj · verb · 8 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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈnɔːti/
  • General-American: /ˈnɔti/
  • General-American: [ˈnɔɾi]
  • cot-caught-merger: /ˈnɑti/
  • cot-caught-merger: [ˈnɑɾi]
  • US: cot-caught Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɔːti
  • homophone: knotty (cot–caught merger)
  • homophone: noddy (cot–caught merger, flapping)
  • CMU ARPABET: N AO1 T IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Mischievous; tending to misbehave or act badly (especially of a child).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • Some naughty boys at school hid the teacher's lesson notes.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: impish, misbehaved, impudent, sassy, audacious, bold, get wise, bold-faced, bold as brass, brassy, brazen, brazen-faced, cheeky, chutzpadik, cocket, cute, dicacious, facey, familiar, flippant, flip, forward, fresh, impious, impertinent, insolent, irreverent, malapert, pert, petulant, saucy

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Sexually provocative; now in weakened sense, risqué, cheeky.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • I bought some naughty lingerie for my honeymoon.
  • If I see you send another naughty email to your friends, you will be forbidden from using the computer!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: dirty, racy, saucy, adult, bawdy, blue, cheeky, indecent, filthy, gross, harlot, impure, ithyphallic, lewd, licentious, mucky, naughty, near the knuckle, obscene, off-colour, raunchy, ribald, ribaudred, ribaudrous, risqué, rorty, salacious, shocking, sluttish, slutlike, slutty, smutty, spicy, tartish, tarty, trampy, vulgar

Antonyms: innocent, nice

3

adj

Meaning 3

Decadent, had as indulgence, especially an unhealthy one.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cheeky, epicurean, sinful, voluptuary, Babylonian, decadent, epicureal, epicureous, epicurish, hedonic, hedonistic, intemperate, lotus-eating, luxurious, naughty, self-indulgent, sensualistic, sybarite, sybaritic, sybaritical, voluptuarian

Antonyms: none provided

4

adj

Meaning 4

Evil, wicked, morally reprehensible.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: baneful, nithing, sordid, abandoned, arrant, bad, bad apple, bad seed, baleful, scurrilous, base, black-hearted, dark, deleterious, demonic, depraved, despicable, detrimental, devilish, diabolical, evil, evil-minded, facinorous, flagitious, harmful, heinous, ill-intentioned, ill-natured, immoral, incorrigible, iniquitous, iniquous, injurious, knavish, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, naughty, nefarious, niddering, nidering, niding, no-good, peccaminous, pernicious, reprehensible, reprobate, satanic, scathful, sinful, sinister, sullen, ungodly, unholy, vicious, vile, villainous, wicked, wrong

Antonyms: none provided

5

adj

Meaning 5

Bad, worthless, substandard.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: lousy, second-rate, two-bit, valueless, ass, bad, base, below par, bottom-shelf, BTEC, bum, cheap, cheap and nasty, cheapshit, cheesy, chintzy, coffee-and, crap, crappo, crappy, craptastic, crapperific, craptabulous, craptacular, cruddy, crummy, dogwater, drecky, flimsy, fourth-rate, gash, garbage, god-awful, inferior, low, low-grade, low-quality, low-rent, made in China, mid, naughty, one-star, poor, poor man's, pound-shop, punk, rinky-dink, ropy, rubbish, sad, schlocky, scrubby, shoddy, slazy, slight, slim, subpar, shit, shite, shitty, substandard, ticky-tacky, tenth-rate, third-rate, tin-pot, trash, trashy, under par, woeful, wretched, bastardly, blown, cacky, chaffy, cocking, crapalicious, cullionly, draffish, draffy, dreckish, duffing, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, for the birds, fucking, garbagey, good-for-naught, good-for-nothing, goodless, ineffectual, invaluable, jabberwocky, junky, mouldy, mucid, no-account, no good / no-good, nonvaluable, not worth a damn, not worth a dime, not worth a plug nickel, not worth a brass farthing, not worth a cent, not worth a cress, not worth a curse, not worth a Continental, not worth a farthing, not worth hell room, not worth a nickel, not worth a penny, not worth salt, not worth a whistle, nought, of no value, pissass, putid, rubbishly, rubbishy, sixpenny, scabbed, screwy, scummy, shand, shitey, shitstained, shitty-ass, sorry-ass, strawlike, suckworthy, toshy, trinkety, triobolar, tripy, unappreciated, unvaluable, vain, worthless, worth nothing, wutless

Antonyms: none provided

6

verb

Meaning 6

To perform sexual acts.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

adjective satellite

Meaning 7

badly behaved

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a naughty boy

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

adjective satellite

Meaning 8

suggestive of sexual impropriety

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a blue movie
  • blue jokes
  • he skips asterisks and gives you the gamy details
  • a juicy scandal
  • a naughty wink
  • naughty words
  • racy anecdotes
  • a risque story
  • spicy gossip

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: blue, gamy, gamey, juicy, racy, risque, spicy

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From late Middle English noughti, naughty (“evil, immoral, wicked”), from nought (“evil, immoral”) + -ī̆ (suffix forming adjectives). Analysable as naught + -y.

Across languages

Translations

153 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: غَيْر مُطِيع (ḡayr muṭīʕ) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Arabic: شَقِيّ (šaqiyy) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Arabic: شِرِّير (širrīr) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Arabic: مُؤْذٍ (muʔḏin) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Armenian: չար (čʻar) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Azerbaijani: yaramaz — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Belarusian: непаслухмя́ны (njepasluxmjány) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Bulgarian: непослушен (neposlušen) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Bulgarian: немирен (nemiren) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Bulgarian: невъзпитан (nevǎzpitan) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Catalan: trapella — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Catalan: entremaliat — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Chinese Cantonese: 曳 (jai5) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Chinese Mandarin: 頑皮 /顽皮 (wánpí) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Chinese Mandarin: 淘氣 /淘气 (táoqì) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Chinese Mandarin: 調皮 /调皮 (tiáopí) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Czech: zlobivý — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Czech: nezbedný — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Czech: neposlušný — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Danish: slem — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Danish: uartig — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Dutch: stout — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Dutch: ondeugend — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Esperanto: fia — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Esperanto: petola — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Finnish: tuhma — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Finnish: ilkeä — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • French: malicieux — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • French: malin — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • French: méchant — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • French: vilain — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Georgian: ცელქი (celki) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • German: ungezogen — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • German: unartig — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • German: ungehorsam — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • German: dreist — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • German: frech — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Greek: άτακτος (átaktos) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Hebrew: שׁוֹבָב (shováv) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Hindi: नटखट (naṭkhaṭ) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Hungarian: rossz — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Hungarian: csintalan — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Hungarian: csibész — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Hungarian: pajkos — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Hungarian: huncut — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Hungarian: helytelen — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Hungarian: dévaj — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Hungarian: rakoncátlan — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Indonesian: nakal — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Irish: dalba — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Italian: birichino — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Italian: furbetto — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Italian: malizioso — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Japanese: わんぱくな (wanpaku-na) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Japanese: いたずらな (itazura-na) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Japanese: やんちゃな (yancha-na) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Japanese: 行儀が悪い (gyōgi-ga warui) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Kabuverdianu: abuzadu — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Kabuverdianu: abuzóde — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Korean: 장난꾸러기의 (jangnankkureogiui) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Central Kurdish: ناڕەحەت (narreḧet) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Latin: improbus — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Latvian: nerātns — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Macedonian: палав (palav) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Macedonian: непослушен (neposlušen) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Macedonian: немирен (nemiren) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Malayalam: വികൃതി (vikr̥ti) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Māori: rawemākoi — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Māori: haututū — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Khiamniungan Naga: ūkhīeh — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Norwegian: uskikkelig — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: rampete — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Persian: تخس (toxs) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Persian: الپر (alpar) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Persian: آلپر (âlpar) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Plautdietsch: goaschtrich — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Polish: niegrzeczny — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Polish: psotny — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Polish: nieposłuszny — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Portuguese: travesso — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Portuguese: levado — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Romanian: neastâmpărat — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Romanian: obraznic — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Russian: озорно́й (ozornój) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Russian: непослу́шный (neposlúšnyj) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Russian: шаловли́вый (šalovlívyj) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Russian: шкодли́вый (škodlívyj) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Scottish Gaelic: crosta — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Spanish: travieso — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Spanish: maleducado — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Spanish: malcriado — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Spanish: maldoso — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Spanish: malulo — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Spanish: sajurín — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Swedish: stygg — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Tagalog: makulit — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Tagalog: pilyo — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Thai: ซน (son) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Thai: ดื้อ (dʉ̂ʉ) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Tibetan: སྒྲིག་ཉེས་པོ (sgrig nyes po) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Turkish: yaramaz — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Turkish: haşarı — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Turkish: haylaz — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Turkish: bacaksız — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Ukrainian: неслухня́ний (nesluxnjányj) — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Vietnamese: hư — bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
  • Czech: nestoudný — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Czech: nestydatý — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Czech: oplzlý — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Czech: choulostivý — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Danish: uartig — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Danish: fræk — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Dutch: ondeugend — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Dutch: gewaagd — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Dutch: gedurfd — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Dutch: brutaal — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Dutch: vuil — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Finnish: tuhma — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • French: osé — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Galician: piardeiro — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • German: frech — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • German: unanständig — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • German: versaut — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Hindi: नटखट (naṭkhaṭ) — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Hungarian: pikáns — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Hungarian: sikamlós — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Hungarian: illetlen — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Hungarian: pajzán — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Hungarian: huncut — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Hungarian: obszcén — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Hungarian: helytelen — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Hungarian: csintalan — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Italian: provocante — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Italian: osceno — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Japanese: きわどい (kiwadoi) — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Japanese: みだらな (midara-na) — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Japanese: エッチな (etchi-na) — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Macedonian: палав (palav) — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Norwegian: frekk — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Norwegian: uforskamma — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Portuguese: safado — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Romanian: deocheat — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Russian: озорно́й (ozornój) — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Russian: шаловли́вый (šalovlívyj) — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Russian: бессты́жий (besstýžij) — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Serbo-Croatian: pikantan — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Serbo-Croatian: neumesan — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Serbo-Croatian: opsen — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Spanish: obsceno — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Spanish: picante — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Spanish: cachondo — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Turkish: yaramaz — risqué, sexually suggestive
  • Turkish: çapkın — risqué, sexually suggestive
Real reading context

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