Ill-gotten

adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Obtained improperly or illegally. not-comparable

    "The sultan's men got the message: he and his successors exiled out-of-favour amirs to Jerusalem where they were expected to spend their ill-gotten wealth on sumptuous complexes that contained palaces, madrassas and tombs."

Adjective
  1. 1
    obtained illegally or by improper means wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
amoralconsciencelesscorruptcorruptedcriminalcrooked

Example

More examples

"Ill-gotten gains are short-lived. The only way to make real money is to earn every penny."

Related phrases

ill-gotten gainsill-gotten gains never profitill-gotten gains never prosperill-gotten goods never prosper

More for "ill-gotten"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.