vile

See also: vīle, vīlē, and víle

English

Etymology

From Middle English vile, vyle, vyl, from Anglo-Norman ville, Old French vil, vile, from Latin vīlis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vaɪ(ə)l/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪl
• Homophone: vial

Adjective

vile (comparative viler or more vile, superlative vilest or most vile)

1. Morally low; base; despicable.

   vile accusation

   vile man

   • 1842 February 22, Abraham Lincoln, “Address Before the Springfield Washingtonian Temperance Society”, in Arthur Brooks Lapsley, editor, The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln‎:

     Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged.

   • 1870, William Minto, “Daniel Defoe”, in Acme Library of Standard Biography:

     The parties stooped to vile and unbecoming meannesses; infinite briberies, forgeries, perjuries, and all manners of debauchings of the principles and manners of the electors were attempted.

   • 2020 January 1, “Cultivating Myself Well and Helping People to Understand the Truth about Falun Dafa”, in Minghui‎:

     People crave human decency, warmth, and sincerity even in the vilest of circumstances…

2. Causing physical or mental repulsion; horrid.

   I glimpsed a vile squid-like creature in the depths.

   vile taste

   vile smell

   vile smile

   vile substance

   vile weather

Noun

vile (uncountable)

1. That which is vile; vileness.
   • 1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Forging Bonds of Hate and ——?”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, pages 26–27:

     “I had seen those two work before—in the smoking-room the day prior to their attack on you, if I recollect it correctly, and so, knowing their methods, I am convinced that their enmity is a sufficient guarantee of the integrity of its object. Men such as they must cleave only to the vile, hating all that is noblest and best.”

Synonyms

• (morally low): base, despicable, mean, ignoble, inappropriate

Derived terms

• vilify

Translations

morally low

Arabic: وضيع m (waḍyʕ) Armenian: զազրելի (hy) (zazreli), նողկալի (hy) (noġkali), ստոր (hy) (stor), պիղծ (hy) (piġc) Belarusian: паскудны (paskudny), гнюсны (hnjusny), нізкі (be) (nizki), подлы (be) (pódly) Bulgarian: низък (bg) (nizǎk), долен (bg) (dolen), подъл (bg) (podǎl) Catalan: vil (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 卑鄙 (zh) (bēibǐ) Czech: hnusný (cs), odporný (cs) Dutch: verachtelijk (nl) Finnish: katala (fi), alhainen (fi) French: vil (fr) Galician: vil (gl) m or f Georgian: უნამუსო (unamuso), საძაგელი (saʒageli), საზიზღარი (sazizɣari), ბილწი (bilc̣i) German: abscheulich (de), gemein (de), schnöde (de) Greek: πρόστυχος (el) m (próstychos), χυδαίος (el) m (chydaíos) Hungarian: hitvány (hu), aljas (hu) Icelandic: viðbjóðslegur (is), andstyggilegur (is) Italian: abietto (it), basso (it), ignobile (it) Japanese: 卑しい (ja) (iyashii), 汚い (ja) (kitanai), 卑劣な (ja) (hiretsu na) Khmer: ទាប (km) (tiep) Korean: 사악한 (saakhan) Latvian: zemisks, nekrietns, netikumisks, netikumīgs Macedonian: низок m (nizok), долен m (dolen), омразен m (omrazen) Old English: earg Ottoman Turkish: آلچاق (alçak), رذیل (rezil), ذلیل (zelil) Polish: podły (pl), niecny (pl), nikczemny (pl) Portuguese: vil (pt) Russian: гну́сный (ru) (gnúsnyj), по́длый (ru) (pódlyj), ни́зкий (ru) (nízkij), ме́рзкий (ru) (mérzkij) Spanish: vil (es) Turkish: alçak (tr) Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

causing repulsion

Bulgarian: гаден (bg) (gaden), противен (bg) (protiven) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Czech: odporný (cs), děsný (cs), ohavný Finnish: inhottava (fi) Hungarian: ocsmány (hu), visszataszító (hu), undorító (hu) Plautdietsch: niedatrajchtich Portuguese: vil (pt), torpe (pt), abjeto (pt) (Portugal), abjecto (pt) (Brazil)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Woiwurrung: (please verify) newlum

See also

• corpus vile
• durance vile
• vile vortex

Anagrams

• Levi, Viel, evil, live, veil, vlei

Albanian

Etymology

A formation from vjel (“to pluck, harvest”).

Noun

vile f (plural vile, definite vilja, definite plural vilet)

1. bunch of grapes

   Synonyms: vesh, bistak, cik

Related terms

• vjel
• vjell

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈvɪlɛ]

Noun

vile f

1. dative/locative singular of vila

Estonian

Etymology

From vilisema +‎ -e.

Noun

vile (genitive vile, partitive vilet)

1. whistle

Declension

Declension of vile (ÕS type 16/pere, no gradation)
		singular	plural
nominative		vile	viled
accusative	nom.
	gen.	vile
genitive			vilede
partitive		vilet	vilesid
illative		ville vilesse	viledesse
inessive		viles	viledes
elative		vilest	viledest
allative		vilele	viledele
adessive		vilel	viledel
ablative		vilelt	viledelt
translative		vileks	viledeks
terminative		vileni	viledeni
essive		vilena	viledena
abessive		vileta	viledeta
comitative		vilega	viledega

French

Pronunciation

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Adjective

vile

1. feminine singular of vil

Italian

Etymology

From Latin vīlis (“cheap”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvi.le/
• Rhymes: -ile
• Hyphenation: vì‧le

Adjective

vile m or f (plural vili)

1. cowardly, dastardly

   Synonyms: codardo, vigliacco

2. base, miserable, mean

   Synonym: miserabile

3. cheap, worthless, base

   Synonym: privo di valore

Noun

vile m or f by sense (plural vili)

1. coward

   Synonyms: fifone, codardo

Derived terms

• avvilire
• svilire

Related terms

• vilipendio
• vilmente
• viltà

Further reading

• vile in Collins Italian-English Dictionary
• vile in Aldo Gabrielli, Grandi Dizionario Italiano (Hoepli)
• vile in garzantilinguistica.it – Garzanti Linguistica, De Agostini Scuola Spa
• vile in Dizionario Italiano Olivetti, Olivetti Media Communication
• vile in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• Levi, levi, live, veli

Latin

Adjective

vīle

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of vīlis

Old French

Alternative forms

• ville

Etymology

From Latin vīlla.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvi.lə/

Noun

vile oblique singular, f (oblique plural viles, nominative singular vile, nominative plural viles)

1. town; city
   • 12th or 13th Century, author unknown, La Damme qui fist trois Tours:

     Ele est la fors en cele vile

     She is over there, in the city.

Descendants

• French: ville

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology 1

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vidla (Russian ви́лы (víly), Czech vidle).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʋîle/
• Hyphenation: vi‧le

Noun

vȉle f pl (Cyrillic spelling ви̏ле)

1. pitchfork

Declension

Declension of vile

	plural
nominative	vile
genitive	vila
dative	vilama
accusative	vile
vocative	vile
locative	vilama
instrumental	vilama

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Participle

vile (Cyrillic spelling виле)

1. feminine plural active past participle of viti

References

• “vile”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *vidla.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʋìːlɛ/

Noun

víle f pl

1. pitchfork

Declension

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Feminine, a-stem
nominative	víle
genitive	víl
	plural
nominative (imenovȃlnik)	víle
genitive (rodȋlnik)	víl
dative (dajȃlnik)	vílam
accusative (tožȋlnik)	víle
locative (mẹ̑stnik)	vílah
instrumental (orọ̑dnik)	vílami

Further reading

• “vile”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2025

Swahili

Pronunciation

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

Adjective

vile

1. vi class_(VIII) inflected form and adverbial form of -le

Venetan

Noun

vile

1. plural of vila