insidious
/ɪnˈsɪdi.əs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.24 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Example Sentences
- "Strong and vigorous man as he looks, Livingstone has been for years the victim of a secret and insidious disease."
- "At some point in time they may become the source of an insidious cancer."
- "The nurse always must be alert to signs of slow leak or insidious infiltration."
- "The impact on rural communities of rail closures was acute, but I would argue that the worst outcome it created was the long-term diminishment of suburban capacity outside London, which has had a far more insidious effect on rail usage nationally."
- "Hansel and Gretel were lured by the witch’s insidious gingerbread house."
- "Gashford slid his cold insidious palm into his master's grasp, and so, hand in hand, and followed still by Barnaby and by his mother too, they mingled with the concourse."
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”).
Word Breakdown
Inflected Forms
more insidious (comparative)
most insidious (superlative)