worse

The word “worse” means more bad; of lower quality, more severe, or less desirable, than something already bad. In plain terms, the comparative of "bad" — more bad than something else.

“Worse” is pronounced wurs (/wɝs/ in IPA).

Here is “worse” used in a sentence: “The traffic today was even worse than yesterday.”

Depending on how it is used, “worse” can be an adjective and a noun.

The word “worse” comes from Old English. From Old English wiersa, the comparative form behind modern "bad" (which borrows its comparative and superlative from a different root, much like "good"/"better"/"best").

“Worse” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A2 level.

“Worse” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: more bad; of lower quality, more severe, or less desirable, than something already bad.

'Worse' compares two things and means more bad than the other — it is the comparative form. 'Worst' is the superlative and means the most bad of all, three or more. So one bad day can be worse than another, but only one can be the worst of them all.

No, 'worser' is considered incorrect in modern English. 'Worse' is already the comparative form of 'bad', so adding '-er' doubles it up. Although 'worser' appears in some old texts, including Shakespeare, today you should simply use 'worse'. The same logic makes 'more worse' wrong as well.

The opposite of 'worse' is 'better', the comparative of 'good'. Just as worse means more bad than something already bad, better means more good than something already good. If a situation stops declining and improves, you would say it is getting better rather than worse.