Word.ws English Dictionary

benign

/bɪˈnaɪn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/bɪˈnɑen/

benign adjective: kind; gentle; mild.

Adjective

benign (comparative benigner or more benign, superlative benignest or most benign)

  1. Kind; gentle; mild.
    • But though we both entertained these ideas, we differed in their application. Resentment added also a sting to my censure; and I reprobated Raymond's conduct in severe terms. Adrian was more benign, more considerate.1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter IX, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC
    • I people my world with benign spirits. Everything talks to me and I respond to it.1982 December 18, Nancy Walker, “Doodle, Turkey and Pumpkin”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 22, page 6
  2. Of a climate or environment, mild and favorable.
  3. (in-compounds) Not harmful to the environment.
    • an ozone-benign refrigerant
  4. Not posing any serious threat to health; not particularly aggressive or recurrent.
    • a benign tumor
    • Despite the gruesome way it looks, cottontail rabbit papillomavirus is often benign, and many rabbits end up fighting it off on their own.2025 August 14, Angela Haupt, “What to Know About the Horned ‘Zombie’ Rabbits Hopping Around Colorado”, in TIME, archived from the original on 17 Aug 2025
    Synonyms:
    nonmalignant
    Antonyms:
    malignant

benign meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

benign in Tamil

அன்பான, நலம் அளிக்கின்ற, நலம் செய்கிற, கடுமையிராத, ஆறும்கட்டி, தீங்கற்ற

benign in Urdu

کریم, مہربان, رحیم

benign in Bengali

সদয়, অমায়িক, অহিংস, নির্দোষ

benign in Telugu

benign, kindly
చల్ల calla
More languagesFewer languages
benign in Malayalam
ദയയുളള, കരുണയുള്ള
benign in Kannada
ಉದಾರ, ಧಾರಾಳ ಸ್ವಭಾವದ, ಅಮಾರಕ, ಗಂಭೀರ ಸ್ವರೂಪವಲ್ಲದ
benign in Punjabi
ਹਲੀਮ halīm
benign in Arabic
كَرِيم karīm, لَطِيف laṭīf
benign in Persian
خوشخیم xoš-xim

Examples of benign in a sentence

  • We will need to perform a biopsy to determine whether the tumour is malignant or benign.
  • We blew an opportunity to get benign corporate sponsorship.
  • Almost any antigen, no matter how benign under most conditions, can have immunopotential effects at least in rare circumstances or hosts.

All 40 example sentences with benign

Synonyms of benign

Antonyms

Forms of benign

comparativebenigner
comparativemore benign
superlativebenignest
superlativemost benign

Origin of benign

From Middle English benigne, benygne, from Old French benigne, from Latin benignus (“kind, good”), from bene (“well”) + genus (“origin, kind”). Compare malign.

Words formed from benign

Phrases with benign

Words that rhyme with benign

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about benign

What does benign mean?
Benign means kind; gentle; mild.
What is benign in Tamil?
Benign in Tamil is அன்பான, நலம் அளிக்கின்ற, நலம் செய்கிற. See Benign meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is benign?
Benign is an adjective.
How do you pronounce benign?
Benign is pronounced /bɪˈnaɪn/ (UK).

Words near benign in the dictionary

  1. benighting
  2. benightings
  3. benightment
  4. benightments
  5. benights
  6. benign
  7. benign neglect
  8. benign paroxysmal positional vertigo
  9. benign prostate enlargement
  10. benign prostate enlargements
  11. benign prostatic hyperplasia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: benign (page history and authors); benign (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); benign (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); benign (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); చల్ల (Telugu) (page history and authors); benign (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); benign (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਹਲੀਮ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “benign.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/benign. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.