malefaction

[ mal-uh-fak-shuhn ]

noun

1. an evil deed; crime; wrongdoing.

Word History and Origins

Origin of malefaction¹

First recorded in 1375–1425 for an earlier sense; 1595–1605 for current sense; Middle English malefaccioun “impotence”; malefactor, -ion

Example Sentences

As the threat of nuclear holocaust began to fade from the collective consciousness, it was replaced by a growing awareness that environmental malefaction might be humanity’s downfall.

From The New Yorker

Little account as our ethical reasonings take note of it, yet is the fact obvious that since happiness and misery are infectious, such regard for self as conduces to health and high spirits is a benefaction to others, and such disregard of self as brings on suffering, bodily or mental, is a malefaction to others.

From Project Gutenberg

Mr. Morris: There are these forces of malefaction, and then there’s one scene that I wanted to ask you about, where you make your argument for why Kennedy is a good man.

From New York Times

He extravagantly denounced the malefaction of the mobs, saying that they pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; and alike sprang up among the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens of the land of steady habits, that this process of hanging went on from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and from these to strangers, till dead men were seen literally dangling from the boughs of trees upon every roadside.

From Project Gutenberg

The civilized and resourceful Inspector Francis Xavier Flynn is on duty here, spying out malefaction at something called the Rod and Gun Club, a secretive woodsy preserve for male members of the Eastern ruling class.

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• atrocity
• breach
• case
• corruption
• evil
• felony
• infraction
• lawlessness
• misconduct
• misdeed
• misdemeanor
• scandal
• transgression
• violation
• wrongdoing