bad actor
noun
plural bad actors
: a person, group, country, etc. who purposely and usually repeatedly engages in very bad behavior (such as committing crimes or causing harm to others)
Giving users a way to prove that they're being harassed with, say, a screenshot or some other form of authentication could help Twitter catch bad actors, even after they've covered their tracks.—
Issie Lapowsky
Issie LapowskyA perennial diplomatic bad actor, North Korea has already rattled its sabers at the opening of the Obama administration.—Alex Kingsbury
Alex Kingsbury"We've got to break away from the notion," as the U.A.W.'s [United Auto Workers] director of public relations, Peter G. Laarman, puts it, "that labor is a 'bad actor' in the economy. …"—Harry Stein
Harry Stein
also
: something that causes trouble, danger, or a problem
The bad actor in male pattern hair loss is DHT, a metabolic product of testosterone. —Jane E. Brody
Jane E. Brody We have special ducts throughout the vapor bath that carry away all the toxic bad actors. —PC Today
PC Today Examples of bad actor in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
This shift addresses growing concerns over identity fraud and the ease with which bad actors find sensitive data via search engines.
—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 10 Feb. 2026
Fast price moves within the silver market often trigger panic buying and that creates openings for bad actors.
—Angelica Leicht, CBS News, 10 Feb. 2026
The sheer pervasiveness of lopsided household labor suggests that this problem cannot be explained by a few individual bad actors.
—Jelena Kecmanovic, CNN Money, 7 Feb. 2026
Increasingly capable coding models have been projected to ease hackers’ or bad actors’ ability to conduct cyberattacks, while also potentially boosting cyber defenses.
—Jared Perlo, NBC news, 5 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for bad actor
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Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 10 Feb. 2026
Fast price moves within the silver market often trigger panic buying and that creates openings for bad actors.
—Angelica Leicht, CBS News, 10 Feb. 2026
The sheer pervasiveness of lopsided household labor suggests that this problem cannot be explained by a few individual bad actors.
—Jelena Kecmanovic, CNN Money, 7 Feb. 2026
Increasingly capable coding models have been projected to ease hackers’ or bad actors’ ability to conduct cyberattacks, while also potentially boosting cyber defenses.
—Jared Perlo, NBC news, 5 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for bad actor
Cite this Entry
“Bad actor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bad%20actor. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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