Mean
Mean adjective - Having or showing a desire to cause someone pain or suffering for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Usage example: a mean, embittered old woman who wanted company for her misery
Vicious is a synonym for mean in attitude topic. In some cases you can use "Vicious" instead an adjective "Mean", when it comes to topics like nasty, unkind, hostile.
Vicious
Vicious adjective - Having or showing the desire to inflict severe pain and suffering on others.
Usage example: she made a vicious effort to destroy the lives of the people who had wronged her
Mean is a synonym for vicious in nasty topic. Sometimes you can use "Mean" instead an adjective "Vicious", if it concerns topics such as attitude, character trait, malicious.
Nearby Word: viciously
Mutual synonyms
Both words in one sentence
- Over the Hedge had staff who consciously decided to play against this trope by having the Rottweiler be energetic and ultra-friendly instead of mean and vicious, as per the usual stereotype.
Source: Dog Stereotype -
Jerkass: The stormtroopers and imperial officers here are unusually vicious and mean-spirited.
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Subverted in Billy the Cat, where the eponymous character, who ironically started as a mean and vicious brat, ends up being reincarnated as a cat, and becomes actually a better person while being a cat.
Source: Cats Are Mean
Cite this Source
Vicious and Mean. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 16, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/mean/vicious
Mean & Vicious. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/mean/vicious>.
Vicious or Mean. 2016. Accessed August 16, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/mean/vicious.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "mean" and "vicious" have occurred on timeline