different between worse vs worser

English

Alternative forms

• verse (Bermuda)

Etymology

From Middle English worse, werse, from Old English wiersa, from Proto-Germanic *wirzizô. Cognate with Dutch wers (“worse”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w??s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /w?s/
• (US, New York City, archaic) IPA^(key): [w??s]
• Rhymes: -??(?)s

Adjective

worse

1. comparative form of bad: more bad

   Your exam results are worse than before.

   The harder you try, the worse you do.

2. comparative form of ill: more ill

   She was very ill last week but this week she’s worse.

Derived terms

• go from bad to worse
• worse for wear

Related terms

• worst

Translations

Adverb

worse

1. comparative form of badly (adverb): more badly

2. comparative form of ill: more ill.

3. Less skillfully.
4. More severely or seriously.
5. (sentence adverb) Used to start a sentence describing something that is worse.

Translations

Verb

worse (third-person singular simple present worses, present participle worsing, simple past and past participle worsed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.

Noun

worse

1. (obsolete) Loss; disadvantage; defeat.

   • Judah was put to the worse before Israel.

2. That which is worse; something less good.

   Do not think the worse of him for his enterprise.

Anagrams

• Rowse, WOREs, owers, owres, resow, rowse, serow, sower, sowre, swore

Afrikaans

Noun

worse

1. plural of wors

English

Etymology

worse +? -er

Adjective

worser

1. (archaic or nonstandard) worse.
   • 1674, Divers Rural and Oeconomical Inquiries, recommended to Observation and Tryal, in Philosophical Transactions, vol. 9

     Whether Flower, kneaded and baked as ?oon as it comes from the Mill, whil?t ’tis yet warm, yields blacker and wor?er Bread?

   • 2002, Ron Lovell, Murder at Yaquina Head

     Momma says that’s an even worser word to say.

Adverb

worser

1. (archaic or nonstandard) worse.

Usage notes

Common in the 16th and 17th centuries, but now found only in some regional dialects, and considered nonstandard.

References

• The Oxford English Dictionary, second edition.

Anagrams

• Rowser, rowers