ma·lig·nant

(mə-lĭg′nənt)

adj.

1. Medicine

a. Tending to metastasize: a malignant tumor.

b. Virulent or threatening to life: a malignant disease.

2. Having or showing ill will; malicious: malignant thoughts.

ma·lig′nant·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

malignant

(məˈlɪɡnənt)

adj

1. having or showing desire to harm others

2. tending to cause great harm; injurious

3. (Pathology) pathol (of a tumour) uncontrollable or resistant to therapy; rapidly spreading

(Historical Terms) history (in the English Civil War) a Parliamentarian term for a royalist¹

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

maˈlignantly adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ma•lig•nant

(məˈlɪg nənt)

adj.

1. inclined to cause harm, suffering, or distress.

2. very dangerous or harmful in influence or effect.

a. tending to produce death, as bubonic plague.

b. (of a tumor) characterized by uncontrolled growth; cancerous, invasive, or metastatic.

[1535–45; < Late Latin; see malign, -ant]

ma•lig′nant•ly, adv.

ma·lig·nant

(mə-lĭg′nənt)

Likely to spread or get worse: a malignant tumor.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

malignant

Used to describe cancerous growth that will spread to surrounding tissues and, if not totally removed, may be fatal. Compare benign

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

malignant - dangerous to health; characterized by progressive and uncontrolled growth (especially of a tumor)

pathology - the branch of medical science that studies the causes and nature and effects of diseases

benign - not dangerous to health; not recurrent or progressive (especially of a tumor)

malignant

adjective

1. (Medical) uncontrollable, dangerous, evil, fatal, deadly, cancerous, virulent, metastatic, irremediable a malignant breast tumour

2. hostile, harmful, bitter, vicious, destructive, malicious, malign, hurtful, pernicious, malevolent, spiteful, baleful, injurious, inimical, maleficent, of evil intent a malignant minority indulging in crime and violence
hostile kind, friendly, benign, benevolent, amicable, warm-hearted

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

malignant

adjective

1. Characterized by intense ill will or spite:

black, despiteful, evil, hateful, malevolent, malicious, malign, mean, nasty, poisonous, spiteful, venomous, vicious, wicked.

Slang: bitchy.

2. Extremely destructive or harmful:

baneful, deadly, noxious, pernicious, pestilent, pestilential, virulent.

Translations

خَبِيثخَبيث، سَرَطاني، مُهْلِكخَبيث، مُؤْذٍ

zhoubnýmaligníškodlivý

ondartetondskabsfuld

bösartig böswilligmalignmaligne

κακοήθης

maligno

pahanlaatuinenpahansuopapahantahtoinenvahingollinen

malin malveillant

zloćudanmaligan

rosszindulatú

illgjarnillkynja

maligno

悪意のある

극히 해로운

kwaadaardig schadelijk

zhubný

elakartad

เป็นอันตราย

acımasız habis kötü kötücül ölümcül

ác tính

恶性的有恶意的

malignant

[məˈlɪgnənt] ADJ (= evil) → malvado (Med) → maligno

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

malignant

[məˈlɪgnənt] adj

[tumour, disease] → malin/igne

(= malicious) [person] → malveillant(e)

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

malignant

adj → bösartig; (Med also) → maligne (spec); effect → negativ; he took a malignant delight in our misfortunes → unser Unglück bereitete ihm ein hämisches Vergnügen; a malignant growth (Med, fig) → ein bösartiges Geschwür; malignant melanoma (Med) → malignes Melanom

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

malignant

[məˈlɪgnənt] adj → maligno/a, malevolo/a (Med) (tumour) → maligno/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

malign

(məˈlain) verb

to say unpleasant things about (someone or something), especially without reason. He's always maligning his wife when she isn't there.

malignant (məˈlignənt) adjective

1. (of people, their actions etc) intending, or intended, to do harm. a malignant remark.

2. (of a tumour, disease etc) likely to become worse and cause death. She died of a malignant tumour.

maˈlignantly adverb

malignant

→ خَبِيث zhoubný ondartet bösartig κακοήθης maligno pahansuopa malin zloćudan maligno 悪意のある 극히 해로운 schadelijk ondartet złośliwy maligno злокачественный elakartad เป็นอันตราย kötücül ác tính 恶性的

ma·lig·nant

a. maligno-a, pernicioso-a, de efecto destructivo;

neoplasia ___ → cáncer.

malignant

adj maligno

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

In that case, of course, people are not spiteful in silence, but moan; but they are not candid moans, they are malignant moans, and the malignancy is the whole point.

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In it the poet invokes Athena to protect certain potters and their craft, if they will, according to promise, give him a reward for his song; if they prove false, malignant gnomes are invoked to wreck the kiln and hurt the potters.

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But a malignant disease, more fatal than the smallpox, broke out among the soldiers and sailors, and destroyed the greater part of them.

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For I had come to see a malignant devil in him which impelled him to hate all the world.

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In one of the windows of the armory overlooking the garden stood a grim, gray, old man, leaning upon his folded arms, his brows drawn together in a malignant scowl, the corners of his mouth set in a stern, cold line.

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This the captain knew, and could not bear; for though envy is at best a very malignant passion, yet is its bitterness greatly heightened by mixing with contempt towards the same object; and very much afraid I am, that whenever an obligation is joined to these two, indignation and not gratitude will be the product of all three.

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At first it seemed as if the remembrance of the promised reward grew vivid in his mind, while he listened to the sources of parental feeling which were to assure its possession; but, as Duncan proceeded, the expression of joy became so fiercely malignant that it was impossible not to apprehend it proceeded from some passion more sinister than avarice.

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Nothing can be a stronger proof of the malignant quality of the air than that the rust will immediately corrode both the iron and brass if they are not carefully covered with straw.

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To him the police were always actuated by malignant impulses and the rest of the world was composed, for the most part, of despicable creatures who were all trying to take advantage of him and with whom, in defense, he was obliged to quarrel on all possible occasions.

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But more frightful even, and more heart-strangling was it, when it again became silent and still all around, and I alone sat in that malignant silence.

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Often it was only the smallest trace, Watson, the faintest indication, and yet it was enough to tell me that the great malignant brain was there, as the gentlest tremors of the edges of the web remind one of the foul spider which lurks in the centre.

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Front-de-B uf, a tall and strong man, whose life had been spent in public war or in private feuds and broils, and who had hesitated at no means of extending his feudal power, had features corresponding to his character, and which strongly expressed the fiercer and more malignant passions of the mind.

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