Naughty means behaving badly in small, mischievous ways rather than doing something truly harmful or mean. A naughty child might sneak an extra cookie before dinner, draw on the wall with crayons, or hide their sibling's toy as a prank.

The word suggests playful disobedience more than serious wrongdoing. There's a big difference between being naughty and being cruel or dangerous. Staying up past bedtime to read under the covers with a flashlight is naughty. Breaking someone's treasured possession on purpose is not naughty, it's mean.

Adults sometimes use naughty teasingly or affectionately, especially around the holidays when they joke about Santa's “naughty or nice” list. The word often appears in old-fashioned children's books, where naughty characters get into harmless scrapes that make the story amusing rather than upsetting.

When someone calls you naughty, they usually mean you've bent the rules in a minor way, not that you've done something truly wrong. Most kids are naughty sometimes; it's part of testing boundaries and learning what the rules actually mean.