malignant

[ muh-lig-nuhnt ]

adjective

1. disposed to cause harm, suffering, or distress deliberately; feeling or showing ill will or hatred.

   Synonyms: malevolent, spiteful

   Antonyms: benign

2. very dangerous or harmful in influence or effect.

   Synonyms: pernicious, hurtful, perilous

   Antonyms: benign

3. Pathology.
   1. tending to produce death, as bubonic plague.
   2. (of a tumor) characterized by uncontrolled growth; cancerous, invasive, or metastatic.

   Antonyms: benign

malignant

/ məˈlɪɡnənt /

adjective

1. having or showing desire to harm others
2. tending to cause great harm; injurious
3. pathol (of a tumour) uncontrollable or resistant to therapy; rapidly spreading

noun

1. history (in the English Civil War) a Parliamentarian term for a royalist

malignant

/ mə-lĭg′nənt /

1. Tending to have a destructive clinical course, as a malignant illness.
2. Relating to cancer cells that are invasive and tend to metastasize. Malignant tumor cells are histologically more primitive than normal tissue.
3. Compare benign

malignant

1. A descriptive term for things or conditions that threaten life or well-being. Malignant is the opposite of benign .

Notes

The term is often used in a general way to denote something that is both destructive and fast growing: “The malignant growth of the suburbs is destroying the landscape.”

The term malignant is used in describing cancerous tumors ( see cancer ) because such growths are a threat to the health of the individual.

Derived Forms

• maˈlignantly, adverb

Other Words From

• ma·lignant·ly adverb
• nonma·lignant adjective
• nonma·lignant·ly adverb
• semi·ma·lignant adjective
• semi·ma·lignant·ly adverb
• unma·lignant adjective
• unma·lignant·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of malignant¹

First recorded in 1535–45; from Late Latin malignant-, stem of malignāns, present participle of malignāre “to act maliciously”; malign, -ant

Word History and Origins

Origin of malignant¹

C16: from Late Latin malīgnāre to behave spitefully, from Latin malīgnus malign

Example Sentences

Tanton wasn’t just a malignant force against immigration.

From Salon

The cancers are often grouped together because they have many features in common and occur when malignant polyps develop in either of the digestive organs.

From Los Angeles Times

The hope and the joy of the Harris/Walz campaign along with Harris’s plans for her potential presidency, economic and otherwise, compared to the malignant vitriol, incoherence, hatred and racism from Trump — for me, there’s never been a clearer choice.

From Salon

These movies were the shadows of both World War I and a ruinous plague, cast across silver screens like a malignant memory that refused to be forgotten.

From Slate

As New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen has pointed out, calling these kinds of policy proposals “weird” verges on malignant understatement.

From Slate

Related Words

• cancerous
• deadly
• destructive
• fatal
• lethal
• mortal