malediction
noun
Sir Walter Scott
Did you know?
Malediction, which at one time could also refer to slander or to the condition of being reviled or slandered, derives (via Middle English and Late Latin) from the Latin verb maledicere, meaning "to speak evil of" or "to curse." "Maledicere," in turn, was formed by combining the Latin words male, meaning "badly," and "dicere," "to speak" or "to say." You may recognize both of those component parts, as each has made a significant contribution to the English language. "Male" is the ancestor of such words as "malady," "malevolent," and "malign"; "dicere" gives us "contradict," "dictate," "diction," "edict" and "prediction," just to name a few.
Examples of malediction in a Sentence
Lauren Collins, The New Yorker, 22 July 2024
Without faith, youth is open more to destructive secular influences similar to fatherless children being open to the maledictions of gangs rather than the counsels found in a loving and caring and attentive two-parent home.
—Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 27 Feb. 2024
What’s more, Presence imbues the song with a story centered around death, misfortune, and perhaps even malediction.
—Spin Contributor, SPIN, 11 Mar. 2024
Despite this Sisyphean malediction, with each call for new proposals, the community still tries to push its boulder back to the mountaintop.
—Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 2 June 2021
But perhaps the malediction presently heaped upon them will give them pause in the future.
—Winston Groom, WSJ, 4 Dec. 2018
Their language seemed perfectly suited for songs and maledictions.
—Linda Kinstler, Longreads, 27 June 2018
Cite this Entry
“Malediction.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/malediction. Accessed 8 Jul. 2025.
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