malevolent
Americanadjective
-
wishing evil or harm to another or others; showing ill will; ill-disposed; malicious.
His failures made him malevolent toward those who were successful.
-
evil; harmful; injurious.
a malevolent inclination to destroy the happiness of others.
-
Astrology. evil or malign in influence.
adjective
-
wishing or appearing to wish evil to others; malicious
-
astrology having an evil influence
Other Word Forms
- malevolence noun
- malevolently adverb
- unmalevolent adjective
- unmalevolently adverb
Etymology
Origin of malevolent
First recorded in 1500–10; from Latin malevolent-, stem of malevolēns “ill-disposed, spiteful,” from male- male- + volēns “wanting” (present participle of velle “to want, wish for, desire”; will 1 )
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.
They found that when a phishing pop-up had clear malevolent telltales, like misspellings, the phone and PC users tended to avoid it at similar rates.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 9, 2025
“Or someone who’s so malevolent that they don’t care.”
From Salon • Oct. 31, 2025
“What’s fun about Laura’s perspective is Cherry seems completely unhinged and that there’s a real malevolent undertone to her behavior,” Cooke says.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 10, 2025
We know these animals are not malevolent, just trying to survive, and so the traps dispatch them with as little suffering as possible.
From Slate • Aug. 8, 2025
Erishkigal nodded, but her eyes shone with malevolent amusement.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
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.
