See necessary evil in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for necessary evil meaning in English (3.9kB)
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "necessary evils",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "necessary evil (plural necessary evils)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Another punishing round of chemo is a necessary evil if Lisa is to have a fighting chance against the cancer."
},
{
"text": "My boss is a real piece of work, but my kids make keeping this job a necessary evil."
}
],
"glosses": [
"An unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted, especially because the available alternative courses of action or inaction would be worse."
],
"id": "en-necessary_evil-en-noun-qoYMkrou",
"links": [
[
"unfavorable",
"unfavorable"
],
[
"thing",
"thing"
],
[
"done",
"done"
],
[
"accepted",
"accepted"
],
[
"courses of action",
"courses of action"
],
[
"inaction",
"inaction"
],
[
"worse",
"worse"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) An unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted, especially because the available alternative courses of action or inaction would be worse."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "必要之惡"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "必要之恶"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "nutné zlo"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "nødvendigt onde"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "noodzakelijk kwaad"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "välttämätön paha"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "mal nécessaire"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "mal pour un bien"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "notwendiges Übel"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "anagkaío kakó",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "αναγκαίο κακό"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "hitsuyōaku",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "必要悪"
},
{
"alt": "必要惡",
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "piryoak",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "필요악"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "nødvendig onde"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "zło konieczne"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "mal necessário"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "mal necesario"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-necessary evil.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7c/En-au-necessary_evil.ogg/En-au-necessary_evil.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/En-au-necessary_evil.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "necessary evil"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "necessary evils",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "necessary evil (plural necessary evils)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Another punishing round of chemo is a necessary evil if Lisa is to have a fighting chance against the cancer."
},
{
"text": "My boss is a real piece of work, but my kids make keeping this job a necessary evil."
}
],
"glosses": [
"An unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted, especially because the available alternative courses of action or inaction would be worse."
],
"links": [
[
"unfavorable",
"unfavorable"
],
[
"thing",
"thing"
],
[
"done",
"done"
],
[
"accepted",
"accepted"
],
[
"courses of action",
"courses of action"
],
[
"inaction",
"inaction"
],
[
"worse",
"worse"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) An unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted, especially because the available alternative courses of action or inaction would be worse."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-necessary evil.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7c/En-au-necessary_evil.ogg/En-au-necessary_evil.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/En-au-necessary_evil.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "必要之惡"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "必要之恶"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "nutné zlo"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "nødvendigt onde"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "noodzakelijk kwaad"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "välttämätön paha"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "mal nécessaire"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "mal pour un bien"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "notwendiges Übel"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "anagkaío kakó",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "αναγκαίο κακό"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "hitsuyōaku",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "必要悪"
},
{
"alt": "必要惡",
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "piryoak",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "필요악"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "nødvendig onde"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"word": "zło konieczne"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "mal necessário"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "unfavorable thing that must be done or accepted",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "mal necesario"
}
],
"word": "necessary evil"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.
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