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vocabulary

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sinister

used in a sentence

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Definition

evil or harmful; or making an evil or frightening impression

Much more rarely and only in very old usage, sinister can refer to the left side of something.

They created a sinister plan to recruit terrorists.

sinister = evil

In the movie, there was a sinister plot to kill people and harvest their organs.

sinister = evil

The storm clouds look sinister.
Speaking quietly so that no one else would hear, Harry told the other two about Snape's sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee.
J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

sinister = threatening

And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn't something a little sinister about him, after all.
F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby

sinister = foreshadowing bad things

An evil forest was, therefore, alive with sinister forces and powers of darkness.
Chinua Achebe -- Things Fall Apart

sinister = evil, harmful, or frightening

Then Charles Wallace giggled, a giggle that was the most sinister sound Meg had ever heard.
Madeleine L'Engle -- A Wrinkle in Time

sinister = evil or frightening

I lived at West Egg, the — well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them.
F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby

sinister = foreshadowing harm

Just as she caught up with them Charles Wallace stopped and raised his hand, and there was the elevator again, its yellow light sinister.
Madeleine L'Engle -- A Wrinkle in Time

sinister = evil or frightening

They had thrown down their waterpots and lain by the roadside expecting the sinister light to descend on them and kill them.
Chinua Achebe -- Things Fall Apart

sinister = evil or frightening

I could see nothing sinister about him.
F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby

sinister = evil or frightening

The late afternoon light had a greenish cast which the blank windows reflected in a sinister way.
Madeleine L'Engle -- A Wrinkle in Time

sinister = evil or frightening

When he began again, the anger on his face was gone, and in its place a sort of smile hovered, more terrible and more sinister than the anger.
Chinua Achebe -- Things Fall Apart

sinister = frightening

Dangerous animals became even more sinister and uncanny in the dark.
Chinua Achebe -- Things Fall Apart

sinister = dangerous or frightening

For all I knew he was going to rob the house in a moment; I wouldn't have been surprised to see sinister faces, the faces of "Wolfshiem's people," behind him in the dark shrubbery.
F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby

sinister = frightening

You looked as if you were bent on some sinister errand, and after you had left me I wondered whether I ought to have let you go.
Henry James -- The American
He fought against the Shade's sinister thoughts, weakly at first, then more strongly.
Christopher Paolini -- Eragon
At night, the cooking fires of squatters living in it gave the structure a sinister jack-o-lantern glow.
Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin -- Three Cups of Tea
Police cars and sinister-looking black vans blocked the curbs all around us.
Rick Riordan -- The Red Pyramid
"It looks pretty sinister," he said.
John Howard Griffin -- Black Like Me

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