the dark side

noun

a negative, disreputable, or evil position

What does the dark side mean?

The dark side refers to a negative, disreputable, or evil position as contrasted with one that is more favored or “good.”

Examples of the dark side

His stage work … has been sublime, and he can bring the lightest of touches to darker subject matter. But now he’s gone way over to the dark side, set to drape himself in a shiny suit, comb his hair and become a TV quiz show host.
—Brian Beacom, The Herald (Scotland), 3 May 2025

… she was a child of the working class, driven to the dark side by a compulsion for something everyone else around her in the moneyed quarters of Los Angeles seemed to have—in this case, prestigiously educated children who didn’t always get where they were going by virtue of their own showstopping achievements.
—Ginia Bellafante, The New York Times, 5 May 2019

Denzel Washington is a magnificently brooding Macbeth, while Frances McDormand embraces the dark side as his lady—a role she was born to play.
—Simon Wardell, The Guardian (London), 7 Jan. 2022

Where does the dark side come from?

The idea of a dark side, or negative/evil aspect of someone or something, is plenty old…

Daniel Gorham is as good-natured a man as can be found in the ordinary range of city life; so much so, that he never sees the dark side of men or things, for he thinks no harm of others, and naturally concludes that others think no harm of him.
—Fitzwilliam Byrdsall, The History of the Loco-foco or Equal Rights Party, 1842

… but using the dark side to refer a negative/evil position, activity, etc., was no doubt influenced by George Lucas’s Star Wars mythos, according to which “the dark side,” or more fully “the dark side of the Force,” is something someone can be drawn to and seduced by on the path to becoming evil.

How is the dark side used?

The dark side sometimes refers to an aspect of one’s personality—the part more willing to act on evil intentions or negative emotions. But sometimes the side in the dark side functions similarly to the sense meaning “team.” In the following example, the dark side could be thought of as a “team” comprised of people who enjoy using e-readers. The dark side is sometimes invoked ironically, and the following example illustrates such use as well.