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

Other Words from malicious Synonyms & Antonyms Malicious, Malevolent, and Malice More Example Sentences Learn More about malicious

Keep scrolling for more

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

The insider threat can be intentional and malicious, as with the NSO employee. — Derek Hawkins, Washington Post, "The Cybersecurity 202: Spyware theft case offers a cautionary tale for encryption debate," 6 July 2018 Even if the purpose isn't malicious, drones typically only have one camera. — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "Drones Are (Still) a Firefighter's Nightmare," 18 June 2018 Though not necessarily malicious, Frankenstein’s monster ends up killing Fritz and a couple more people, spurring the villagers to gather their torches and hunt the monster down. — Tracy Brown, latimes.com, "'Jurassic World' and the entertainment industry's insistence that science will run amok," 15 June 2018 Please keep your malicious, derogatory, discriminatory, bullying, harassing, demeaning content off @itchio. — Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, "Op-ed: Valve takes a side by not “taking sides” in curation controversy," 7 June 2018 One offered Gmail users a malicious ‘‘Anti-Phishing Guard App’’ to protect themselves from cybercriminals. — Raphael Satter, BostonGlobe.com, "Long-hidden hackers unmasked by special counsel investigation," 13 July 2018 Former Arsenal defender Emmanuel Eboue has been taken into custody at a London Police Station following claims of suspected arson, as well as malicious communication outside of a home in Enfield. — SI.com, "Arson-al: Ex-Gunners Defender Arrested in London on Suspicion of Arson," 8 July 2018 By obtaining read and write privileges over the server's address space, the attack had the ability to execute code of the researcher's choice, at least when running on memory chips that don't protect against malicious bit flips. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "Packets over a LAN are all it takes to trigger serious Rowhammer bit flips," 10 May 2018 But Woodard said Harris' major injuries involved his head and that the kicks didn't amount to malicious wounding or even assault and battery. — Ian Shapira, Anchorage Daily News, "White supremacist is guilty in Charlottesville parking garage beating of black man," 2 May 2018

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.