How to Use malevolent in a Sentence

malevolent

adjective
  • This was a man who viewed his body as a swarming hive of malevolent bees.
    Denise Davidson Writer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Aug. 2021
  • Why are all the adults in the story—save, perhaps, one or two—malevolent?
    Willing Davidson, The New Yorker, 9 Nov. 2020
  • Our intelligence views them as the most aggressive and the malevolent force in the world.
    Fox News, 21 July 2018
  • That, at any rate, is how the more malevolent critics of Herodotus would put it.
    Tom Holland, WSJ, 30 Mar. 2017
  • But there is also a strange malevolent presence on board, sensed by the team's telepath.
    Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 29 Nov. 2018
  • The main thing is that there's just something malevolent about parrots.
    John Kass, chicagotribune.com, 4 May 2017
  • And most don’t require a malevolent dictator to bring them to full fruition.
    IEEE Spectrum, 3 Jan. 2022
  • Ben goes, pretends to snap some shots, and declares the place free of malevolent spirits.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 26 July 2023
  • These malevolent mechatronics put the power down with a vengeance.
    Dan Neil, WSJ, 2 Mar. 2023
  • The crew of an interstellar ship battles a malevolent force in this sci-fi thriller.
    Los Angeles Times, 19 Nov. 2020
  • The doll then proceeds to summon other malevolent forces.
    Detroit Free Press, 26 June 2019
  • Each of these ten stories pitted a hero against a malevolent one-eyed giant.
    Ferris Jabr, Harper's magazine, 10 Mar. 2019
  • All these and many more disasters were enabled by a malevolent form of trust and loyalty.
    Chris Lowney, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2021
  • Oh yeah, Russians are on the platform and have abused it, malevolent actors have abused it.
    Recode Staff, Recode, 2 May 2018
  • Pathogens do not rampage like malevolent armies on the march, causing damage in direct relation to the scale and pace of their spread.
    Time, 3 Feb. 2020
  • Everyone lives in the shadow of his father's malevolent ego.
    Will Nevin, OregonLive.com, 17 Oct. 2017
  • The experts assumed that this would soon change, and that they’d be mobilized in a hot war against malevolent fakers.
    Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023
  • As Dawn draws closer to the truth, something malevolent grips her and her family.
    Rick Porter, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Sep. 2022
  • While not always malevolent, they’re noted pranksters, and a good deal of time is spent trying to keep them happy.
    Hanya Yanagihara Kyoko Hamada, New York Times, 10 May 2023
  • This platform was used by malevolent players, in the way it was designed to be used essentially.
    Eric Johnson, Recode, 2 Aug. 2018
  • As such a name may imply, Lilith’s influence on the world is brutal and malevolent.
    Boone Ashworth, WIRED, 8 Dec. 2022
  • The power top was standard, but its possession by malevolent ghosts must have been an option.
    Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 2 July 2020
  • Other believe the evil eye reflects a malevolent gaze back upon those who wish harm upon others.
    Stephanie Petit, PEOPLE.com, 30 Sep. 2019
  • All the same, Reagan’s views of a malevolent Kremlin were well-founded.
    The Economist, 15 Aug. 2019
  • Noir is a cry of desolation in the face of a universe that is malevolent—or, at best, indifferent.
    David L. Ulin, The New Republic, 11 Feb. 2020
  • The sky looks heavy enough to sink and crush us when we see another twister bullying across the fields—a squat, malevolent-looking wedge.
    Priit J. Vesilind, National Geographic, April 2004
  • Along the way are rowdy choir boys, a nosy Sacristan, a wistful shepherd boy, and a gallery of malevolent henchmen.
    David Patrick Stearns, Philly.com, 13 May 2018
  • Such malevolent statutes will embolden more rollbacks if they are not challenged.
    Los Angeles Times, 22 Apr. 2022
  • Moreover, its male protagonist is one of the most malevolent characters ever to grace a stage or screen.
    Vulture, 27 Jan. 2023
  • During his watch, he is terrorized by a malevolent force searching for its next victim.
    Andrew Walsh, EW.com, 5 May 2022

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

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