perversity

/pərˈvɜrsəti/

Other forms: perversities

When you choose to act in a way that's unreasonable, contrary, or just plain wrong, you're displaying perversity. Your perversity might lead you to throw your empty soda can on the ground instead of in the recycling bin.

Being deliberately contrary — doing the opposite of what people expect or want you to do — is one characteristic of perversity. There's also a sense inherent in this word of acting strangely or deviantly. Your perversity might mean that your jokes tend to make everyone around you feel uncomfortable. The Latin root is perversus, "turned away, contrary, or askew."

Definitions of perversity

1. noun

   deliberately deviating from what is good
   “there will always be a few people who, through macho perversity, gain satisfaction from bullying and terrorism”

   synonyms: perverseness

   type of:

   evil, evilness

   the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice
2. noun

   deliberate and stubborn unruliness and resistance to guidance or discipline
   synonyms: contrariness, perverseness

   types:

   cussedness, orneriness

   meanspirited disagreeable contrariness

   type of:

   fractiousness, unruliness, wilfulness, willfulness

   the trait of being prone to disobedience and lack of discipline