malice

CEFRC1

/ˈmælɪs/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A desire to harm or upset someone.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    An intention to do injury to another party, which in many jurisdictions is a distinguishing factor between the crimes of murder and manslaughter.

Examples

  • Ben spread a rumor about me out of malice.

  • There was no malice in what he did.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
4

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. To intend to cause harm; to bear malice.

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

More examples

In context

  • Your voice positively drips malice.

  • […] not only was there no gratitude (which he could psychologically handle) but downright malice showed itself instead.

  • Thou blinded God (quod I) forgive me this offence, / Unwittingly I went about, to malice thy pretence.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

He broke the toy out of pure blank, wanting to upset the child.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English malice, borrowed from Old French malice, from Latin malitia (“badness, bad quality, ill-will, spite”), from malus (“bad”).