malignant

malignant

English

Etymology

From Middle French malignant, from Late Latin malignans. See malign.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /məˈlɪɡnənt/

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Adjective

malignant (comparative more malignant, superlative most malignant)

1. Harmful, malevolent, injurious.

   malignant temper;  malignant revenge;  malignant infection

   • 1863 August 26, Abraham Lincoln, Letter to James Conkling‎, page 7:

     […] while, I fear, there will be some white ones, unable to forget that, with malignant heart, and deceitful speech, they have strove to hinder it.

2. (medicine) Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue.
   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎:

     “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes […] . And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […]”

   malignant diphtheria

   a malignant tumor

   Antonyms: benign, non-malignant

Derived terms

• bovine malignant catarrhal fever
• malignant catarrhal fever
• malignantly
• neuroleptic malignant syndrome
• nonmalignant
• non-malignant
• premalignant
• promalignant
• unmalignant

 

Related terms

• malign

Translations

harmful, malevolent, injurious

Basque: gaizto (eu) Bulgarian: зловреден (bg) (zlovreden) Catalan: maligne (ca) Dutch: kwaadaardig (nl) Finnish: pahantahtoinen (fi), vahingollinen (fi) French: malin (fr), malveillant (fr) German: bösartig (de) Greek: κακοήθης (el) m or f (kakoḯthis) Ancient Greek: κακοήθης (kakoḗthēs) Hungarian: rosszindulatú (hu) Indonesian: berbahaya (id) Irish: aingí Italian: maligno (it), malevolo (it) Plautdietsch: fientlich Polish: szkodliwy (pl) m Portuguese: maligno (pt) Russian: зловре́дный (ru) (zlovrédnyj), болезнетво́рный (ru) (boleznetvórnyj) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: малѝга̄н, зло̀ћудан Roman: màlīgan (sh), zlòćudan Spanish: maligno (es) Turkish: zararlı (tr), kötü (tr)

(medicine) tending to produce death

Armenian: չարորակ (hy) (čʿarorak) Basque: gaizto (eu) Bulgarian: злокачествен (bg) (zlokačestven) Catalan: maligne (ca) Czech: zhoubný (cs) m, maligní (cs) Dutch: kwaadaardig (nl) Finnish: pahanlaatuinen (fi) French: malin (fr) German: bösartig (de), malign Greek: κακοήθης (el) m or f (kakoḯthis) Ancient Greek: κακοήθης (kakoḗthēs) Hungarian: rosszindulatú (hu) Irish: ainciseach, urchóideach Italian: maligno (it) Maori: orotā Norwegian: Bokmål: ondartet, malign Nynorsk: vondarta, malign Persian: بدخیم‎ (fa) (bad-xim) Polish: złośliwy (pl) m Portuguese: maligno (pt) Russian: злока́чественный (ru) (zlokáčestvennyj) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: малѝга̄н, зло̀ћудан Roman: màlīgan (sh), zlòćudan Spanish: maligno (es) Swedish: malign (sv), elakartad (sv) Turkish: kötü huylu (tr), habis (tr)

Noun

malignant (plural malignants)

1. A deviant; a person who is hostile or destructive to society.
   • 1823, The Retrospective Review (volume 7, page 11)

     As devout Stephen was carried to his burial by devout men, so is it just and equal that malignants should carry malignants […]

   • 1999, National Institute of Business Management, Difficult People at Work, →ISBN, page 8:

     A malignant in a position of real power immediately becomes a tyrant.

2. (historical, derogatory, obsolete) A person who fought for Charles I in the English Civil War.

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Latin

Verb

malignant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of malignō