necessary evil
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Something unpleasant but required to achieve a goal
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Điều gì đó khôngpleasant nhưng cần thiết để đạt được mục tiêu
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: an evil that is necessary
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Taking out a loan is a necessary evil to buy a house
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “necessary evil” mean?
Something unpleasant but required to achieve a goal Literally: an evil that is necessary
Is “necessary evil” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.