worse

worse — adjective

1. having a lower quality or standard, or being more unpleasant or serious, when co

1.adjectiveA2
Definition

having a lower quality or standard, or being more unpleasant or serious, when compared with another thing or with how things were before

Example

The service at this café is worse than at the one on Main Street.

worse + than [noun] for comparing

Owen thought the movie sequel was far worse than the original.

far worse — intensifier before comparative

Common collocations
  • far worse
  • much worse
  • even worse
  • get worse
  • worse than
Synonyms
  • poorer

    more limited to quality or condition; less common with severity or unpleasantness

  • inferior

    more formal; strongly implies lower rank or value

  • lower

    more general; can refer to amount, level, or position, not necessarily unpleasantness

Antonyms
  • better

    direct opposite — of higher quality, more pleasant, or less severe

Grammar Patterns

worse + than + noun/clause

Usage Note

Commonly used with intensifiers such as much, far, even, and a lot before it, and followed by than to introduce the thing being compared.

Common Mistakes

This is more worse than the other one.
This is worse than the other one.
worse is already a comparative form, so adding more is redundant.
This is the worse film I have ever seen.
This is the worst film I have ever seen.
worse compares two things; worst is the superlative for three or more.

2. less healthy than before; suffering from a more serious medical condition than e

2.adjectiveB1
Definition

less healthy than before; suffering from a more serious medical condition than earlier

Example

Ravindra caught a cold and felt worse each day until he saw a doctor.

feel worse — health-related use

The patient's condition became worse overnight, so the nurses called the specialist.

become worse — worsening condition

Common collocations
  • feel worse
  • look worse
  • get worse
  • become worse
Synonyms
  • sicker

    more direct and less formal; common in everyday speech

  • more ill

    slightly more formal than sicker; common in British English

Antonyms
  • better

    less ill; recovering or recovered in health

Grammar Patterns

feel/get/become/look + worse

Usage Note

This sense is predicative only — it cannot go before a noun. You can say 'She is worse today' but not 'a worse patient.' Distinguish from sense 1, where worse can be attributive ('a worse problem').

Common Mistakes

He is a worse patient than yesterday.
He is worse than yesterday.
this sense describes a state, not a quality, so it is not used before nouns.
Idioms

somebody’s bark is worse than their bite

idiom

Someone sounds angry or threatening but is not actually dangerous.

Don't worry about the boss; his bark is worse than his bite.

Maya's bark is worse than her bite, so don't be scared.

come off worse

idiom

To be defeated or to suffer more damage than others in a conflict or competition.

In the argument, Tom came off worse and felt embarrassed.

Our team came off worse in the match against the champions.

a fate worse than death

idiom

An extremely unpleasant or terrible experience that someone might have to go through.

For her, attending that boring party was a fate worse than death.

He considered losing his job a fate worse than death.

go from bad to worse

idiom

To become even more unpleasant or difficult than before.

After the storm, the situation went from bad to worse.

His health went from bad to worse after the surgery.

worse luck!

idiom

Used to express disappointment or regret about something that happened.

I have to work on Saturday, worse luck!

She missed the train, worse luck, and arrived late.

worse — noun

worse — adverb

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Worse, poorer, and inferior all describe something that falls short of a standard, but they differ in scope and formality. Worse is the broadest and most common word — it covers quality, unpleasantness, severity, and difficulty, and works in both formal and informal settings. Poorer is narrower: it focuses on quality or financial condition (poorer materials, poorer families) and is not used for severity or difficulty. Inferior is more formal and often carries a stronger judgment of low rank or value (inferior goods, inferior performance). For everyday comparisons of quality, worse is the natural choice: 'The soup was worse than yesterday's.' Use poorer when the focus is specifically on quality or lack of resources: 'The poorer soil produced smaller crops.' Use inferior in formal writing or when stating a clear value judgment: 'The counterfeit parts were made of inferior metal.'

worse ↗poorerinferior ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

Prepositions

Etymology

Indo-EuropeanProto-GermanicOld EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Worse comes from the Old English word wiersa, which was the comparative form of the adjective yfel (meaning 'evil' or 'bad'). This pattern goes back further to the Proto-Germanic word *wersizan, and can be traced to an ancient Indo-European root meaning 'to confuse' or 'to mix up.' Over centuries, the spelling shifted from wiersa to wors to the modern worse, but it has always been the 'more bad' form — even though bad and worse come from completely different historical roots.