Welcome to the dark side of the classic witch, step lightly or you may get eaten.

The wicked witch archetype is a classic staple of Fairy Tales everywhere. It used to be that just about every witch was wicked, and if a non-evil female magic user appeared in folklore, she'd be referred to with a term like "sorceress" or "fairy godmother" instead, but in modern times that's not always the case. A lot of the trappings of a wicked witch are shared by her good or neutral counterpart the Witch Classic, such as Broomstick riding and wearing pointy hats. Still there are some red flags to watch out for to decide if the witch you're dealing with is good or may in fact be wicked.

• Appearance: Because Beauty Equals Goodness and Evil Makes You Ugly, an evil witch tends to be old and wrinkly, perhaps with warts and a Sinister Schnoz or Thin Chin of Sin, and maybe even green or sallow skin, or unhealthy pale skin. And of course they wear black. In fact, if they hit any of the evil appearance tropes you'll want to watch out. However, if her beauty is the reason for her evil, she's probably a Vain Sorceress.
• Habits: This character tends to live alone in isolated environments, especially creepy forests or thorny wastelands where it's easy to find your way in and never find your way back out. Sometimes her house is Obviously Evil, but it's just as likely she lives in a Gingerbread House or other attractive building, so as to lure in her favorite prey: children. Sometimes she eats them, or sometimes she uses them as Human Resources for her magic, but even if she does neither, most evil witches seem inexorably destined to give kids the worst—and last—days of their lives. This character also has an unusually high-pitched and/or raspy voice. She loves to cackle and she may say something along the lines of "I'll get you my pretty!", and is likely to be psychotic. And while witches in general love black cats, the wicked ones also have a thing for creepy and evil animals like spiders, snakes, crows, toads or bats.
• Powers: While a good witch tends to be an earthy nature child, the bad version practices Black Magic and The Dark Arts and probably trucks with the devil or some other power of evil. A good witch might brew a potion to make your laundry smell nice, but a wicked one might brew a potion with a Dead Man's Toe to give you hives. They are also especially prone to throwing around Curses at people they don't like or really just anyone that happens to cross their path. Turning people into animals (in particular frogs/toads) seems to be a favorite, as far as curses go ^note  Which likely hearkens back upon the legend of Circe turning men into pigs. .

It's likely that every witch in existence will be this trope in a setting where Magic is Evil. There might also be some overlap with the Wicked Stepmother and the Evil Matriarch; however, royalty tends to be beautiful. In settings tending more towards Magic Realism than typical fantasy worlds, their magical powers will be downplayed, but their prophecies will have a bad habit of coming horribly true, especially if they get insulted or snubbed.

It's also worth noting that many aspects of the wicked witch (an old woman in mourning black, living alone, loves children, has a cat) are perfectly ordinary things you might expect from a widowed older woman, twisted to make them sound evil. The origins of the wicked witch herself are most likely a way to vilify women that certain people thought were leading immoral lives, or wanted to take advantage of.

Compare Evil Sorceress of which this tends to be a more 'earthy' version.

Usually uses Black Magic. Subtrope of Witch Classic. Sister tropes include Cute Witch, Hot Witch, and Widow Witch.

Examples: