See bad actor in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "bad actors",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "bad actor (plural bad actors)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Law",
"orig": "en:Law",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "100 0 0 0",
"kind": "other",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
161,
171
]
],
"ref": "2016 September 26, Jill Treanor, quoting Stuart Levey, “Global collaboration needed on ‘bad actor’ rules, says HSBC legal chief”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "More needs to be done to combat financial crime, a senior lawyer at HSBC has said as he called for global collaboration over the rules imposed on banks to keep “bad actors” out of the financial system.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
232,
242
]
],
"ref": "2018 February 5, Paul Lewis, quoting Mark Warner, “Senator warns YouTube algorithm may be open to manipulation by 'bad actors'”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee has warned that YouTube’s powerful recommendation algorithm may be “optimising for outrageous, salacious and often fraudulent content” or susceptible to “manipulation by bad actors, including foreign intelligence entities”.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An individual or entity with a prior criminal conviction, or who has been sanctioned by the court or regulator."
],
"id": "en-bad_actor-en-noun-fpk08Cbh",
"links": [
[
"law",
"law#English"
],
[
"individual",
"individual"
],
[
"entity",
"entity"
],
[
"prior",
"prior"
],
[
"criminal",
"criminal"
],
[
"conviction",
"conviction"
],
[
"sanctioned",
"sanctioned"
],
[
"court",
"court"
],
[
"regulator",
"regulator"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, law) An individual or entity with a prior criminal conviction, or who has been sanctioned by the court or regulator."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"topics": [
"law"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"glosses": [
"A person with malicious intent."
],
"id": "en-bad_actor-en-noun-JSDlU0~A",
"links": [
[
"person",
"person"
],
[
"malicious",
"malicious"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A person with malicious intent."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 19th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "28 8 53 11",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "29 2 63 6",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "26 2 67 5",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
250,
260
]
],
"ref": "1857 September 12, “The County Convention”, in The Evansville Daily Journal, page 2:",
"text": "At this stage of the game excitement ran high; all were on their feet and crowding close upon the Chair – all were talking at once. One Democratic brother loudly called another a G-d d--d fool and then apologised. The Convention was a Pandemonium of bad actors.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
147,
157
]
],
"ref": "1862 December 27, “The Neros at Washington”, in Dayton Daily Empire, page 2:",
"text": "But the soldiers continue to suffer and die by the thousands, and the country to bleed at every pore. How long shall these things be and the bold, bad actors who have arranged the drama dare to show their faces among an outraged constituency?",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An ill-intentioned, mean, badly behaved or ill-tempered person."
],
"id": "en-bad_actor-en-noun-I0VIzd0T",
"links": [
[
"ill-intentioned",
"ill-intentioned"
],
[
"mean",
"mean"
],
[
"ill-tempered",
"ill-tempered"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) An ill-intentioned, mean, badly behaved or ill-tempered person."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bad, actor."
],
"id": "en-bad_actor-en-noun-660uh7LW",
"links": [
[
"bad",
"bad#English"
],
[
"actor",
"actor#English"
]
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "5 18 16 61",
"topics": [
"law"
],
"word": "criminal"
},
{
"_dis1": "5 18 16 61",
"topics": [
"law"
],
"word": "wrongdoer"
},
{
"_dis1": "5 18 16 61",
"topics": [
"law"
],
"word": "malefactor"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-bad actor.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f2/En-au-bad_actor.ogg/En-au-bad_actor.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/En-au-bad_actor.ogg"
}
],
"word": "bad actor"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"en:People"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "bad actors",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "bad actor (plural bad actors)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Law"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
161,
171
]
],
"ref": "2016 September 26, Jill Treanor, quoting Stuart Levey, “Global collaboration needed on ‘bad actor’ rules, says HSBC legal chief”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "More needs to be done to combat financial crime, a senior lawyer at HSBC has said as he called for global collaboration over the rules imposed on banks to keep “bad actors” out of the financial system.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
232,
242
]
],
"ref": "2018 February 5, Paul Lewis, quoting Mark Warner, “Senator warns YouTube algorithm may be open to manipulation by 'bad actors'”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee has warned that YouTube’s powerful recommendation algorithm may be “optimising for outrageous, salacious and often fraudulent content” or susceptible to “manipulation by bad actors, including foreign intelligence entities”.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An individual or entity with a prior criminal conviction, or who has been sanctioned by the court or regulator."
],
"links": [
[
"law",
"law#English"
],
[
"individual",
"individual"
],
[
"entity",
"entity"
],
[
"prior",
"prior"
],
[
"criminal",
"criminal"
],
[
"conviction",
"conviction"
],
[
"sanctioned",
"sanctioned"
],
[
"court",
"court"
],
[
"regulator",
"regulator"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, law) An individual or entity with a prior criminal conviction, or who has been sanctioned by the court or regulator."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"topics": [
"law"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms"
],
"glosses": [
"A person with malicious intent."
],
"links": [
[
"person",
"person"
],
[
"malicious",
"malicious"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A person with malicious intent."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"attestations": [
{
"date": "from 19th c.",
"references": []
}
],
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
250,
260
]
],
"ref": "1857 September 12, “The County Convention”, in The Evansville Daily Journal, page 2:",
"text": "At this stage of the game excitement ran high; all were on their feet and crowding close upon the Chair – all were talking at once. One Democratic brother loudly called another a G-d d--d fool and then apologised. The Convention was a Pandemonium of bad actors.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
147,
157
]
],
"ref": "1862 December 27, “The Neros at Washington”, in Dayton Daily Empire, page 2:",
"text": "But the soldiers continue to suffer and die by the thousands, and the country to bleed at every pore. How long shall these things be and the bold, bad actors who have arranged the drama dare to show their faces among an outraged constituency?",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An ill-intentioned, mean, badly behaved or ill-tempered person."
],
"links": [
[
"ill-intentioned",
"ill-intentioned"
],
[
"mean",
"mean"
],
[
"ill-tempered",
"ill-tempered"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) An ill-intentioned, mean, badly behaved or ill-tempered person."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bad, actor."
],
"links": [
[
"bad",
"bad#English"
],
[
"actor",
"actor#English"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-bad actor.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f2/En-au-bad_actor.ogg/En-au-bad_actor.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/En-au-bad_actor.ogg"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"topics": [
"law"
],
"word": "criminal"
},
{
"topics": [
"law"
],
"word": "wrongdoer"
},
{
"topics": [
"law"
],
"word": "malefactor"
}
],
"word": "bad actor"
}
Download raw JSONL data for bad actor meaning in English (4.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.