malevolent
/məˈlɛvələnt/
malevolent adjective: having or displaying ill will; wishing harm on others.
Adjective
malevolent (comparative more malevolent, superlative most malevolent)
- Having or displaying ill will; wishing harm on others.
- In Iraq the bullying continued. After she witnessed the death of a colleague, Manning felt how “with enough grief, adrenaline and fear”, war can turn anyone “amoral, even malevolent”.2022 October 27, Simon Parkin, “README.txt by Chelsea Manning review – secrets and spies”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Synonyms:
- maleficent, sinister, abandoned, arrant, bad, bad apple, bad seed, baleful, scurrilous, baneful
- Antonyms:
- benevolent
- Having an evil or harmful influence.
- Vela, Javier Hernández and Lozano switched positions with a thrillingly malevolent sense of purpose.2018 June 17, Barney Ronay, “Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived...
malevolent meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
malevolent in Hindi
- having or displaying ill will; wishing harm on others
- द्वेषी dveṣī
malevolent in Urdu
- بدباطن, بدخواہ, خبیث, کینہ ور
malevolent in Bengali
- having or displaying ill will; wishing harm on others
- পরশ্রীকাতর porosrikator
malevolent in Malayalam
- having or displaying ill will; wishing harm on others
- കുനിഷ്ഠൻ kuniṣṭhaṉ
More languagesFewer languages
- malevolent in Kannada
- ಕೇಡೆಣಿಸುವ, ಕೆಟ್ಟುದನ್ನು ಬಯಸುವ, ಕೇಡನ್ನು ಉಂಟುಮಾಡುವ, ಹಾನಿಯನ್ನು ಉಂಟುಮಾಡುವ
- malevolent in Sanskrit
- दूढी dūḍhī́, दुर्धी durdhī
- malevolent in Arabic
- حَاقِد ḥāqid, حَقُود ḥaqūd
- malevolent in Malay
- berniat jahat
- malevolent in Indonesian
- berniat jahat
- malevolent in Persian
- بدکامه badkâme, بدخواه badxâh
- malevolent in Thai
- ประสงค์ร้าย bprà-sǒng-ráai, มุ่งร้าย mûng-ráai
Examples of malevolent in a sentence
- The Pari, in Persian mythology, is a description of fairy beings but malevolent.
- If Cary Grant ran by, chased by a malevolent cropduster, you might not be surprised.
- This man knows the void; he shows how urban emptiness can be an active, malevolent, urbicidal force.
Synonyms of malevolent
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- black-hearted
- dark
- deleterious
- demonic
- depraved
- despicable
- detrimental
- devilish
- diabolical
- evil
- evil-minded
- flagitious
- harmful
- heinous
- ill-intentioned
- ill-natured
- immoral
- incorrigible
- iniquitous
- injurious
- knavish
- malefic
- malicious
- malign
- malignant
- nefarious
- no-good
- peccaminous
- pernicious
- reprehensible
Antonyms
Forms of malevolent
| comparative | more malevolent |
|---|---|
| superlative | most malevolent |
Origin of malevolent
From Middle English *malevolent (suggested by Middle English malevolence), from Old French malivolent and Latin malevolentem, from male (“badly, wrongly”) + volens (“willing, wishing”), from velle (“to wish”).
Words formed from malevolent
Questions about malevolent
- What does malevolent mean?
- Malevolent means having or displaying ill will; wishing harm on others.
- What is malevolent in Hindi?
- Malevolent in Hindi is द्वेषी (dveṣī). See Malevolent meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is malevolent?
- Malevolent is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce malevolent?
- Malevolent is pronounced /məˈlɛvələnt/.
Words near malevolent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: malevolent (page history and authors); malevolent (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); malevolent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); दुर्धी (Sanskrit) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-malevolent.wav, en-us-malevolent.ogg.
Cite this entry: “malevolent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/malevolent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.