bedevil
/bɪˈdɛvəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.76 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Guerrilla attacks continued to bedevil the larger army's supply routes."
- "Mr. Levi may have been bedeviled by buried conflicts unrelated to Auschwitz."
- "Such amity is no small thing. The narrowing world of Yiddish theater has been bedeviled with one “broyges — a cherished term for a falling out — after another"
- "Michael De Santa (Ned Luke): You know, Devin [Devin Winston], the way I see it, and hey, I'm no intelligent businessman like you, but the way I see it, there's two great evils that bedevil American capitalism of the type that you practice."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épider. Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi Proto-Germanic *bider. Proto-Germanic *bi- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Old English be- Middle English bi- English be- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ▲ Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu. Proto-Indo-European *dwísder. Ancient Greek διά (diá) Ancient Greek δια- (dia-) Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-der. Proto-Hellenic *gʷəlnō Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō) Ancient Greek διαβάλλω (diabállō) Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos)bor. Latin diabolusbor. Proto-West Germanic *diubul Old English dēofol Middle English devel English devil English bedevil From be- + devil.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /bɪˈdɛvəl/
- British English: [bɪˈdɛvəɫ]