bastard
What does “bastard” mean in English?
It's an insult for someone who's cruel or unpleasant. While it originally referred to a person born outside of marriage, that's mostly forgotten now.
Literally “person born outside marriage”
You'd use it as a direct insult, similar to calling someone a 'dick' or 'arsehole'. Its tone can range from light-hearted to genuinely offensive, depending on context.
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Related English words
arsewipe
3/5 · VulgarIt's a contemptuous insult for someone unpleasant or irritating. Think of it as calling someone a real piece of shit.
prick
3/5 · VulgarIt's a derogatory term used to insult someone, typically implying they're unpleasant or annoying. Literally, it refers to a penis, but that's not the everyday usage here.
shithead
3/5 · VulgarIt's an insult for someone who's being unpleasant or foolish. Literally, it translates to 'head of excrement.'
arsehole
3/5 · VulgarIt's an insult for someone who's being particularly obnoxious or irritating. Literally, it translates to 'anus.'
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About this data
Swear Atlas is a source-attested, AI-curated reference — not a native-speaker-certified dictionary. Meanings and the 1–5 Burn Rating are approximate editorial assessments that vary with context, region, tone and speaker. Inclusion of a word does not constitute endorsement of its use.
The literal gloss is a short editorial translation to show word-for-word sense, not an etymological claim.
“Sounds like” is an English-friendly approximation of how the word sounds, not an authoritative pronunciation. Where shown, the romanisation is a conventional Latin-script transliteration of the original spelling.
Term attested via LDNOOBW, 4troDev/profanity.csv, Viddexa SafeText (CC-BY-4.0, MIT). Editorial content © Swear Atlas.