malicious

adjective

ma·li·cious mə-ˈli-shəs

Synonyms of malicious next

: having or showing a desire to cause harm to someone : given to, marked by, or arising from malice

malicious gossip

maliciously adverb

maliciousness noun

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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

… she is an inspired hater, and thrills to malicious descriptions of long-forgotten, nameless individuals whose bad luck it was to live near her, or to have met her socially. —

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

Recent Examples on the Web Strong antivirus software actively running on your devices will alert you of any malware in your system, warn you against clicking on any malicious links in phishing emails, and ultimately protect you from being hacked. —

Kurt Knutsson, Fox News, 19 Sep. 2023 Numerous applications began circulating on social media claiming to be the Starlink app, a few of which were malicious and posed risks to those who installed them. —

Pouria Nazemi, Scientific American, 18 Sep. 2023 Smith also argued that the heart of the bill — the one-stop data deletion program — could potentially allow malicious outsiders to impersonate consumers and delete their data without permission. —

David Hamilton, Fortune, 15 Sep. 2023 Cybercriminals seeking an extortion payment often gain access to a victim’s computer networks, then either encrypt file systems by installing malicious software called ransomware, threatening to release sensitive information, or both. —

Kevin Collier, NBC News, 14 Sep. 2023 There will be programs in place to protect against fraud or malicious activity, and games included in charity bundles will not be subject to fees. —

Ash Parrish, The Verge, 14 Sep. 2023 Investigators were then able to inject the malware with a program that released the victim computer from the botnet, freeing it of the malicious host. —

Robert Legare, CBS News, 29 Aug. 2023 It’s typically used to load additional malicious programs, which can allow the attacker to hijack a Windows PC. —

Michael Kan, PCMAG, 24 Aug. 2023 This will also prevent you from clicking malicious links intending to install malware, allowing hackers to gain access to your personal information. —

Kurt Knutsson, Fox News, 4 Sep. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'malicious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.