Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use malice in a sentence

34 example sentences · noun, verb

Malice means intention to harm or deprive in an illegal or immoral way. Desire to take pleasure in another's misfortune. Example: “Your voice positively drips malice.”

Examples of malice by meaning

nounIntention to harm or deprive in an illegal or immoral way. Desire to take pleasure in another's misfortune.

  • Your voice positively drips malice.
  • without the slightest flutter of malice in her round face.2015, Catherynne M. Valente, The Boy Who Lost Fairyland, Feiwel & Friends, page 215

nounAn intention to do injury to another party, which in many jurisdictions is a distinguishing factor between the crimes...

  • The question that would have been before the jury was whether Fox committed “actual malice” in airing the claims.2023 April 18, Sam Levine, Kira Lerner, “Fox and Dominion settle for US$787.5m in defamation lawsuit over election lies”, in The Guardian...

verbTo intend to cause harm; to bear malice.

  • Robert Truswell may have been a belligerent and malicing man, a jury heard this morning during the trial of George Kieran Daunt.2005 May 3, “'He was a mess,' woman says of accused”, in The Whitehorse Star
  • I haven't maliced anybody, definitely not.2018 May 14, Kimberley Small, quoting Marion Hall, “Dancehall was contentious, says Marion Hall”, in The Jamaica Star

More sentences with malice

  • This act was not merely wrong; it was clearly done with malice aforethought.From the entry aforethought
  • The accusation was libelous, full of falsehoods, spite and malice.From the entry libelous
  • It looked like the work of time and weather, not yōkai malice.2021, Marie Brennan [pseudonym; Bryn Neuenschwander], chapter 5, in The Night Parade of 100 Demons (Legend of the Five Rings), Nottingham…. From the entry yōkai
  • Any use of discretionary power exercised for an unauthorized purpose amounted to malice in law.2021 January 5, “Any use of discretionary power exercised under Rule 86A for an unauthorized purpose amounts to malice in law – HC”, in…. From the entry malice in law
  • In a society that values good-natured teasing, Shannon discovered the joys of ribbing without malice.2015, Steve Silberman, chapter 2, in Megan Newman, editor, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, New York…. From the entry ribbing
  • She sees the devil's great malice but she sees also his “unmight:” his powerlessness.2015, Wendy Farley, The Thirst of God. From the entry unmight
  • You naused up your place in this family and you did it with malice.2014, Martina Cole, The Good Life. From the entry nause up
  • The facts of the accident, however, are too ambiguous to reek of malice or recklessness.1998 May 15, Barry Bearak, “Hailing Danger; Behind the Wheel: Long Hours and Hard Feelings”, in New York Times. From the entry and all
  • Come therefore, gentle death, and ease my griefe; Cut short what malice Fortune misintends.1967, Arthur Freeman, Thomas Kyd: facts and problems - Page 145. From the entry misintend
  • Oh, God, what self-esteem, what ignorance, what malice, what shrunken thinking, and all in one person!1963, The Atlantic Monthly - Volume 212, page 71. From the entry dephilosophize
  • He was a vicious male gossip, insatiably curious and vindictive without malice.1952, John Steinbeck, chapter 48, in East of Eden, London: Heinemann, page 456. From the entry gossip
  • Moreover, instead of murder, the act of decapitation contains no malice or evil intent.1933 August 2, Marshall Evening Messenger, fifty-seventh year, number 39, Marshall, Tex., page four. From the entry decapitee
  • Often, it was more curiosity than malice.2022, Russell Wangersky, Same Ground: Chasing Family Down the California Gold Rush Trail, ECW Press, →ISBN. From the entry Newfoundland and Labradorian
  • So the thought of closing the Academy is not based in malice; the action might prove enlightening and refreshing.2016 March 3, David Thomson, “Biggest lesson of the 2016 Oscars? The Academy should be scrapped”, in The Guardian. From the entry coterie
  • Malice, then, would be commensurate with the crime.2011, Maggie Pouncey, Perfect Reader, Anchor, →ISBN, page 231. From the entry indoorness
  • Now, I saw cankerous malice in a destroyer.2008, Jonathan Gash, chapter 15, in Faces in the Pool, New York: Minotaur, published 2009, page 122. From the entry discharity
  • If someone attributes these miracles to Beelzebub's spirit, not through ignorance but through malice, his wrongmindedness is past hope.1988, Desiderius Erasmus, Erika Rummel, Paraphrase on Mark, →ISBN, page 54. From the entry wrongmindedness
  • The warrantlessness of the suit may, in many instances, be so obvious as that malice may be inferred from it.1920, {unattributed}, The Southwestern Reporter, Volumes 221-222. From the entry warrantlessness
  • In such a case and under such proof the intent to kill and the deliberate and premeditated malice are incontrovertibly implied.1917, State v. Morris, “The Pacific Reporter”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), number 163, page 584. From the entry incontrovertibly
  • Full of vinegar and all-round cussedness, but without malice.1910, Jack London, chapter 11, in Burning Daylight. From the entry cussedness
  • The actions of the president and the government advising him on the matter of Justice Isa were stained by malice in law, says the court.2020 October 28, Abdul Moiz Jaferii, “Facts and malice in law”, in The News International. From the entry malice in law
  • The Caligulan malice with which Donald Trump administered Paul Ryan’s degradation is an object lesson in the price of abject capitulation to power.2016, George F. Will, “The ‘big price’ Paul Ryan has paid for supporting Donald Trump”, in The Washington Post. From the entry Caligulan
  • In French, the meanings of malicieux and malice have changed to mean mischievious and mischieviousness, with an implication of cleverness and perhaps a little teasing.2009, Saul H. Rosenthal, French Faux Amis: The Combined Book, page 17. From the entry mischievious
  • The demons in their prismatic malice betray the agreement between us and them, and we are again in the chaos of chance.1962, Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire. From the entry goetic
  • The crop season was at hand and the sugarcane fields, managerless, were open to the malice of those who bore the Tulsis grudges.1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, published 2001, Part Two, Chapter 3. From the entry managerless
  • On this occasion family feuds were healed, and all envy, hatred, and malice, laid aside; as an emblem of restored harmony, gifts were interchanged.1911 March, E. C. Vansittart, “Some Roman Festivals and Customs: Ancient and Modern”, in The Antiquary: A Magazine Devoted to the Study of…. From the entry calends
  • This is very deep dish — layered with malice and kindness, truth and conjecture, and all the mixed motives that make human beings such endlessly intriguing subjects of speculation.2014 April 21, Ben Brantley, “Daniel Radcliffe Stars in Revival of 'The Cripple of Inishmaan'”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The…. From the entry deep-dish
  • In this, our lord shewed a parte of the feendes malice, and fully his unmight, for he shewed that the passion of him is the overcoming of the feende.2006, Nicholas Watson, Jacqueline Jenkins, The Writings of Julian of Norwich, published 1843. From the entry unmight
  • When the weak call the strong evil the move is not merely defensive; it is also an expression of that peculiar malice which Nietzsche referred to as ressentiment.1973, Philippa Foot, “Nietzsche: The Revaluation of Values”, in Robert C. Solomon, Garden City, editors, Nietzsche: A Collection of…. From the entry ressentiment

Meaning of malice

  1. noun Intention to harm or deprive in an illegal or immoral way. Desire to take pleasure in another's misfortune.
  2. noun An intention to do injury to another party, which in many jurisdictions is a distinguishing factor between the crimes of murder and manslaughter.
  3. verb To intend to cause harm; to bear malice.

Full definition of malice

Questions about malice in a sentence

How do you use malice in a sentence?
Malice is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Your voice positively drips malice.”
What is a short sentence with malice?
“Your voice positively drips malice.”
What does malice mean?
Malice means intention to harm or deprive in an illegal or immoral way. Desire to take pleasure in another's misfortune.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: malice (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use malice in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/malice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.