Link Centre Dictionary

insidious

in·si·dious

UK/ɪnˈsɪdi.əs/ US/ˌɪˈnsɪˌdiʌs/ uncommon

adjective

1.

beguiling but harmful

  • “insidious pleasures”
Similar
2.
3.

working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way

  • “glaucoma is an insidious disease”
  • “a subtle poison”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

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”).

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Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.