malicious
adjective
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Malicious, Malevolent, and Malice
Malicious and malevolent are close in meaning, since both refer to ill will that desires to see someone else suffer. But while malevolent suggests deep and lasting dislike, malicious usually means petty and spiteful. Malicious gossipers are often simply envious of a neighbor's good fortune. Vandals may take malicious pleasure in destroying and defacing property but usually don't truly hate the owners. Malice is an important legal concept, which has to be proved in order to convict someone of certain crimes such as first-degree murder.
Examples of malicious in a Sentence
Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times Book Review, 5 Nov. 2000
A cunning and malicious crook who suckered him without half trying.
—Philip Roth, American Pastoral, 1997
Frank sensed her discomfort and took a certain malicious pleasure in it, enacting all the while his perfect innocence.
—John Updike, The Afterlife, 1994
a malicious distortion of the truth
the neighborhood chatterbox has again been spreading malicious gossip
Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 29 Apr. 2025
The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have antivirus software installed on all your devices.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 27 Apr. 2025
The definitions of what’s crazy, what’s malicious, what’s polite, normal, and respectable all lost some of their force.
—Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 25 Apr. 2025
Once a device is compromised, hostile regimes and other malicious actors can spy on communications regardless of whether the information in question is encrypted.
—Ronald J. Deibert, Foreign Affairs, 24 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for malicious
Cite this Entry
“Malicious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/malicious. Accessed 4 May. 2025.
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malicious
adjective
Legal Definition
malicious
adjective
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