different between atrociousness vs wickedness

English

Etymology

atrocious +? -ness

Noun

atrociousness (uncountable)

1. The state or quality of being atrocious.

   Synonym: atrocity

   • 1689, Francis Grant, Lord Cullen, The Loyalists Reasons for His Giving Obedience, and Swearing Allegiance, to the Present Government, Edinburgh: J. Reid, pp. 34-35,^[1]

     If there be joyned to [injustice] an other vice […] , if it be frequent and habitual, in a Person of perfect Age, all these Aggravations augment its Atrociousness.

   • 1830, Theodore Dwight Weld, The Bible against Slavery, New York, p. 12,^[2]

     The atrociousness of a crime, depends greatly upon the nature, character, and condition of the victim. […] To steal bread from a full man, is theft; to steal it from a starving man, is both theft and murder.

   • 1958, T. H. White, The Once and Future King, New York: Putnam, Book 2, Chapter 12, p. 309,^[3]

     […] as the day dawned, the atrociousness of his conduct became apparent.

English

Etymology

From Middle English wickednes, wikkednes, wikkednesse, wikednesse, equivalent to wicked +? -ness.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w?k?dn?s/

Noun

wickedness (countable and uncountable, plural wickednesses)

1. The state of being wicked; evil disposition; immorality.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 227d.

     We speak of wickedness as something in the soul different from virtue.

2. A wicked or sinful thing or act; morally bad or objectionable behaviour.

Quotations

• And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Translations

References

• wickedness in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• wickedness in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.