maleficent
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- malefic adjective
- maleficence noun
Etymology
Origin of maleficent
1670–80; back formation from Latin maleficentia maleficence; -ent
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“It’s really hard to predict all the maleficent uses,” said Giada Pistilli, principal ethicist at Hugging Face.
From Slate • Jan. 14, 2023
“Publicly, they say the right things, expressing approval and joining in the chorus of voices that applaud the takedown of maleficent characters who prey on vulnerable women in the workplace,” she wrote.
From The Guardian • Oct. 16, 2019
The actor, more often cast as likable and light, makes fairy-tale Flynn maleficent.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 28, 2014
He’s the life coach to an almost certainly maleficent Big Data C.E.O.
From New York Times • Aug. 5, 2014
That kind of belief in the maleficent as well as in the beneficent powers of the dead became very prevalent in later times.
From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by Brinkley, F. (Frank)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
