nefarious
nih-FAIR-ee-usadjMeaning wicked or criminal
Memory hook NE-FAIR-ious: NOT FAIR, but wicked. Late at night the villain sneaks off with the town clock so that everyone will miss the fair. His scheme is nefarious.
The villain’s nefarious plan was to steal the town’s clock so everyone would miss the fair.
In context At first the stranger seemed charming, but his purpose was nefarious: he had come to swindle the widow out of her farm.
Similar wicked, villainous, criminal, crooked
Opposite virtuous, good, noble
From Latin nefarius, from nefas, “a wrong, a crime”: ne (not) + fas (what is right).