• (RP) IPA: /ˈsɪnɪstə/
• (America) IPA: /ˈsɪnɪstɚ/

sinister

1. Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister).
   • 1611, Ben Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy

     All the several ills that visit earth, / Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.

2. Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.

   sinister influences

   the sinister atmosphere of the crypt

3. Of the left side.
   • c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:

     Here on his sinister cheek.

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene v]:

     My mother's blood / Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister / Bounds in my father's.

   • 1911, Saki, ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis:

     Before the train had stopped he had decorated his sinister shirt-cuff with the inscription, ‘J. P. Huddle, The Warren, Tilfield, near Slowborough.’

4. (heraldry) On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
5. (obsolete) Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.
   • 1612, Francis Bacon, Of Judicature

     Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.

   • He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.

   • 1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. [...] In Three Volumes, volume (please specify ), Edinburgh: Printed [by James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 779274973 ↗:

• (of the right side): dexter
• (heraldry): dexter

• French: sinistre
• German: sinister
• Portuguese: sinistro
• Russian: злове́щий

• French: sinistre
• German: böse, sinister
• Italian: sinistro
• Portuguese: sinistro
• Russian: злой
• Spanish: siniestro

• German: sinister, links, linksseitig
• Italian: sinistra
• Portuguese: sinistro, sestro, esquerdo
• Russian: находиться
• Spanish: siniestro

• French: sénestre
• German: linker
• Italian: sinistra
• Spanish: siniestro, izquierdo