Evil

With a capital letter 'e' — Evil is a quality that may be ascribed to a particular action or being. Those whose nature is evil invariably commit evil actions, and on a routine basis.

An evil being (person, monster, or power always looks out for itself, even when this is at the expense of others. An evil being tends to show callousness, engage in violence, revel in dominance, perpetrate double-crosses, and generally takes action to move the status of things from order to entropy.

In everyday language, people tend to speak of particular groups or organizations as evil, despite the finely grained distinction that only individuals can be good or evil.

Unless somehow protected against, the spell know alignment will reveal a being's relative location on the Good vs. Evil continuum. The spell protection from evil confers an AC bonus of two points and a +2 saving throw bonus against evil persons/monsters, for the duration of the spell.