Link Centre Dictionary

malicious

ma·li·cious

UK/məˈlɪʃəs/ US/mʌˈlɪʃʌs/ uncommon

adjective

1.

having the nature of or resulting from malice

  • “malicious gossip”
  • “took malicious pleasure in...watching me wince” Rudyard Kipling
Antonyms
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2.

wishing or appearing to wish evil to others; arising from intense ill will or hatred

  • “a gossipy malevolent old woman”
  • “failure made him malevolent toward those who were successful”
Synonyms
Antonyms
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Origin

From Middle English malicious, from Old French malicios, from Latin malitiōsus, from malitia (“malice”), from malus (“bad”). Displaced native Middle English ivelwilled and ivelwilly (“malicious”), related to Old English yfelwillende (literally “evil-willing”). By surface analysis, malice + -ious.

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Word family

See also

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.