malevolent
22
8.0
- adjective
- /məˈlɛvələnt/
:
malévolo
- The villain's malevolent actions caused fear and suffering in the entire village.
- malevolent spirits
- malevolent forces
- malevolent intentions
You know, you can't just say like they're malevolent or they're heroes.
- You know, you can't just say like they're malevolent or they're heroes.
- But it turns out that they're not just malevolent beasts.
- Your God is a malevolent desert foreign God.
- It's not just a kind of malevolent conspiracy.
- But eventually the test file gets expanded to malevolent code.
- And also then a separate question about whether the AI is malevolent or benevolent.
- There are, I believe I know benevolent and malevolent entities in around us which are controlling us.
- or the work of some malevolent deity or demon that wants to sabotage your life,
- And I finally found a similarity, You know, how in Richard the Third, Richard is very malevolent, but he's funny.
- Not to be confused with malevolent, you evil bitch.
- So I'm not that doesn't even bother me that they're have malignant or malevolent intent.
- I've none of them I have met, I've felt like a, you know, malevolent evil who, you know, must be stopped at all costs.
- I'm having this weird thing where instead of being the big, dark, malevolent biggest bitch in Britain, I end up being this person that people like shit me.
Examples
-
Joan is stopped at a signal, frowning up at the malevolent message on the bus stop poster.
Fiction book (1992) -
If he is able but not willing, then he must be malevolent.
-
You have a malevolent, uh, presence.
-
Your God is a malevolent desert foreign God.
-
Just be careful, she could be malevolent.
-
His smile is malevolent, calculating, and finally it feels honest.
-
The idea of a malevolent entity controlling a person's thoughts and actions.
-
This CPS worker would be the next to fall victim to the malevolent energy in this home.
-
The scowl he wore was grotesque and made his face even more malevolent, which was quite a feat.
Fiction book (1991) -
Its narrow, slitted eye peered at me with a certain malevolent indifference.
Fiction book (2000)
Synonyms
∞
1.2
Being very bad and morally wrong, often causing harm to others
91
8.1
Extremely evil and cruel, as if caused by the devil
89
5.8
Wanting to hurt someone or damage their good name
47
8.8
Very bad and illegal, done to harm people
44
8.2
Very evil and cruel, like a devil
14
7.3
Very bad and cruel, often hurting other people
10
7.9
Being very cruel and evil and making others suffer
6
6.3
Showing strong hate and wanting to hurt someone
4
7.6
A harmful, evil force that causes people or things to suffer
4
8.4
Looking or sounding dangerous and making you feel afraid
1
9.9
Being harmful or evil to people and things
1
7.5
Wanting to hurt people or cause harm
1
9.9
A very wicked and criminal act that shocks people
Causing harm or wanting to harm others
Antonyms
Compounds
How Malevolent
Surface Forms
Morphology
malevolent = male + vol + ent
Although historically analyzable as Latin elements (male- 'badly' + vol- 'wish' + -ent), these parts are not productive or clearly recognizable to most learners (and 'male' can be misleading as 'man'), so the meaning cannot be reliably derived from the components.
Etymology
Malevolent is made of two parts: male- meaning 'bad' and -volent meaning 'to wish'. The opposite word benevolent means 'wishing good', so malevolent literally means 'wishing bad' and describes someone who wants to harm others.