malicious

adjective ma·li·cious \ mə-ˈli-shəs \

Definition of malicious

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

malicious gossip

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maliciously

adverb

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maliciousness

noun

See malicious defined for English-language learners

See malicious defined for kids

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 of malicious from the Web

Fields is charged with second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death.

— veronica hilbring, Essence.com, "White Nationalist Who Fired Gun At Protesters While Police Stood By Finally Arrested," 28 Aug. 2017
The Charlottesville Police Department said in a statement Saturday night that James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio also faces three counts of malicious wounding, and one count related to leaving the scene.

— paul gattis, AL.com, "1 dead, 1 hospitalized after double shooting in Decatur," 12 Aug. 2017
A British security researcher, who became an internet hero after he was credited with stopping a malicious software attack this year, was arrested at the Las Vegas airport and charged in connection with a separate attack.

— daisuke wakabayashi, New York Times, "He Won Praise for Halting a Global Cyberattack. Then He Was Arrested.," 3 Aug. 2017
On Friday, Dallas jurors sided with Polito, finding the accusations to be malicious defamation.

— lisa ryan, The Cut, "Beauty Blogger and Husband Must Pay $1 Million After Bad-mouthing Their Wedding Photographer," 2 Aug. 2017
This is the second malicious harassment investigation for Boise police this week.

— ruth brown, idahostatesman, "Police investigate possible hate crime in vandalism of car," 14 July 2017
This protects powerful people from deliberate, malicious lies, while leaving space for oversight and criticism in the public interest.

— The Economist, "Defamation laws are necessary. But they must be narrowly drawn," 13 July 2017
In the mid-50s, Cohn was in the headlines for the malicious circus of the hearings.

— marie brenner, The Hive, "How Donald Trump and Roy Cohn’s Ruthless Symbiosis Changed America," 4 July 2017
Some are malicious and live in her closet, some are mysterious and are under her bed.

— Courant Community, "Community News For The Windham Edition," 3 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'malicious.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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.