as in malicious
having or showing a desire to cause someone pain or suffering for the sheer enjoyment of it
the novel grossly oversimplified the conflict as a struggle between relentlessly malevolent villains on one side and faultless saints on the other
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Recent Examples of malevolent
Becca’s disintegration emphasizes the parts of her that endure; the avatar, on the other hand, is a parody of that real flesh, an uncanny and malevolent imitation.
—
Alexandra Kleeman, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2025
His greatest foe was a malevolent being known as The Void, which is actually a facet of his own repressed psyche.
—Jeff Spry, Space.com, 23 Apr. 2025
The morning light around him looking weirdly malevolent, a young man stumbles to the door of a small country church, swinging the remains of a guitar in one hand.
—Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 18 Apr. 2025
But what should be a joyous time of their lives becomes sinister when Sarah starts seeing a malevolent spirit, she is convinced is trying to take her baby.
—Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 25 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for malevolent
Alexandra Kleeman, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2025
His greatest foe was a malevolent being known as The Void, which is actually a facet of his own repressed psyche.
—Jeff Spry, Space.com, 23 Apr. 2025
The morning light around him looking weirdly malevolent, a young man stumbles to the door of a small country church, swinging the remains of a guitar in one hand.
—Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 18 Apr. 2025
But what should be a joyous time of their lives becomes sinister when Sarah starts seeing a malevolent spirit, she is convinced is trying to take her baby.
—Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 25 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for malevolent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for malevolent
Adjective
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Enhances visibility and control of network traffic and user activities and detects and blocks malicious activities.—
Mickey Singh,
Forbes.com,
23 May 2025
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The malicious URLs outputted in the response are in clickable form, meaning all a user has to do is click one to be taken to a malicious site.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
23 May 2025
Adjective
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The original 2006 film, which was adapted from Lauren Weisberger’s book of the same name, starred Meryl Streep as the powerful Miranda Priestley, Anne Hathaway as fashion newbie Andy Sachs, Emily Blunt as vicious assistant Emily and Stanley Tucci as Miranda’s right hand man Nigel.—
Rachel McRady,
People.com,
23 May 2025
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Wolves are vicious and intelligent group hunters, but dogs and thunderstorms famously do not mix.—
Steven Louis Goldstein,
New York Times,
22 May 2025
Adjective
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But then perhaps that is her unsatisfying but depressingly undeniable point: there is no challenging minds this small, behaviors this cruel, spirits this mean.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
30 May 2025
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The reason Evin is infamous is because of its terribly cruel high security detention centers that are poorly supervised by the Prison Chief.—
Jeff Kaufman,
Time,
30 May 2025
Adjective
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Of note: Your Content must not be false, defamatory, misleading or hateful, or infringe any copyright or any other third-party rights or otherwise be unlawful.—
Will Matsuda,
New York Times,
23 May 2025
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Alpine Formula 1 driver Franco Colapinto has taken a strong stance against some of his fans who have shared hateful messages against Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda after an on-track incident in Imola on Friday.—
Lydia Mee,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Malevolent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/malevolent. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
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