Wickedness is behaviour that is deeply and deliberately wrong. Sheer wickedness, the wickedness of it, human wickedness.
It is a moral and often religious word rather than a legal one, and it names evil with intent behind it. Because it is old and heavy, it sounds either serious or theatrical depending entirely on context. Note wicked, which in informal use since the 1980s means excellent — a reversal English has done before with bad and with sick.
1nounwickednessBehaviour that is deeply and deliberately wrong.
“In the end, the cruel stepmother is punished for all her wickedness.”
wickedness is moral evil.
Middle English wikkednesse is wicked plus -ness. Wicked itself comes from an Old English word for a wizard or wretch, so the word has always named something outside the community.
Proto-Indo-European
*weyk-
Middle English
wikkednesse
English, today
wickedness
Middle English wikkednesse, wikkednes, equivalent to wicked + -ness.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA