MALICIOUS Synonyms: 88 Similar and Opposite Words

malicious

adjective

mə-ˈli-shəs

Definition of malicious

as in vicious

having or showing a desire to cause someone pain or suffering for the sheer enjoyment of it the neighborhood chatterbox has again been spreading malicious gossip

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of malicious After engaging with the box, the user sees a line of text, often obscured in a way to mask any malicious commands. — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 11 Sep. 2026 The rap star has a malicious prosecution case pending against the lawyer in federal court in New York. — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 11 Sep. 2026 Jacob Klein, Anthropic’s head of threat intelligence, told The New York Times that the situation rarely involves obvious declarations of malicious intent. — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 10 Sep. 2026 The company has issued three prior threat assessments detailing malicious uses of AI. — ABC News, 10 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for malicious

Recent Examples of Synonyms for malicious

Adjective

His Lamb goes from a brash Yorkshire showman to a callous profiteer of human vice and misery, his cheeky smile becoming a vicious snarl.

— Joe Reid, Vulture, 21 Sep. 2026
The strikes were often most vicious in the far north of Yemen, a rebel stronghold and the region where the Houthi movement had been founded, in the nineteen-nineties.

— Kareem Fahim, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2026

Definition of vicious

Adjective

Bronwyn’s mother, Muzzy, who was lambasted all of last season for being cold and arguably cruel to her daughter, is notably softer in her first scene back — though the bob is as cunty as ever.

— Tom Smyth, Vulture, 17 Sep. 2026
He was convicted of four counts of war crimes including murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 17 Sep. 2026

Definition of cruel

Adjective

The Ostrich Army, though, dismissed the courts as corrupt and, beginning in late January 2025, started to flood CFIA offices with hateful messages and threats.

— J. B. MacKinnon, Harpers Magazine, 22 Sep. 2026
But concrete evidence of Clark fans acting in a hateful manner — at least in real time — is severely lacking.

— Matt Calkins OutKick, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2026

Definition of hateful

Adjective

Back then, researchers were focused on eradicating the New World screwworm, a nasty pest that lays its eggs in wounds on living creatures.

— Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 21 Sep. 2026
Paul and Matthews have been embroiled in a nasty social media feud that sparked after ABC pulled The Bachelorette season 22.

— Nicole Fell, HollywoodReporter, 21 Sep. 2026

Definition of nasty

Adjective

Today the danger is swarms of malevolent AI agents, the CEOs in question run frontier labs, and legal niggling risks holding up an urgent safety conversation.

— Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 17 Sep. 2026
If only professional old salt Wyck (Stephen Root) would quit with the doomsday prophecies about the fog being a sign of the island waking from malevolent slumber.

— Culture Critic, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2026

Definition of malevolent

Adjective

Cox’s film is biased in Bill’s favor, portraying him as a lapdog whose love for this screeching, spiteful, beady-eyed woman is his great tragic flaw.

— Katie Rife, IndieWire, 14 Sep. 2026
Their movements become more spiteful than woo-woo, more sculpture than painting, more an argument than an idle thought.

— Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2026

Definition of spiteful

Adjective

The analysis also revealed significant stroke risk elevations for adults diagnosed with bladder, stomach, and liver cancers, as well as myeloid leukemia and malignant brain and nervous system tumors.

— Tom Gavin, EverydayHealth.com, 9 Sep. 2026
Perhaps the most intriguing risk factor for psychopathology gleaned from clinical psychological science, and one that is particularly relevant to the assessment and treatment of postpartum psychopathology, is malignant self-criticism.

— Torie Bosch, STAT, 5 Sep. 2026

Definition of malignant

Browse Nearby Words

malice

malicious

maliciously

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“Malicious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/malicious. Accessed 24 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of malicious

adjective

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