malevolent
Americanadjective
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wishing evil or harm to another or others; showing ill will; ill-disposed; malicious.
His failures made him malevolent toward those who were successful.
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evil; harmful; injurious.
a malevolent inclination to destroy the happiness of others.
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Astrology. evil or malign in influence.
adjective
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wishing or appearing to wish evil to others; malicious
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astrology having an evil influence
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of malevolent
First recorded in 1500–10; from Latin malevolent-, stem of malevolēns “ill-disposed, spiteful,” from male- male- + volēns “wanting” (present participle of velle “to want, wish for, desire”; see also will 1)
Explanation
If someone is malevolent, they wish evil on others. If you find yourself approaching someone with a malevolent look in her eye, best to run the other way. Malevolent comes from the Latin word malevolens, which means "ill-disposed, spiteful"; its opposite is benevolent, which means "wishing good things for others." A malevolent person might display satisfaction at someone else's problems. But it's not only individuals who can be malevolent. If you think that television violence influences viewers to violence, you see television as a malevolent force. The stress is on the second syllable: muh-LEV-uh-lent.
Vocabulary lists containing malevolent
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Take the Bad with the Good: Bene and Mal
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The other is that AI systems will do exactly what malevolent humans direct them to do.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Even Cyrus’ freakishly long nails and eerie voice are derivative of other horror movie boogeymen, but without their grasp of the uncannily malevolent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Had it heeded a more malevolent sensibility than an instinct to overexplain, it might have been more ruthlessly effective at yucking our yum for road trips.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
The malevolent attention paid to Black’s stilted pop song reached levels no internet phenomenon had ever encountered.
From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2026
On bad days the orange walls held hands and bent over him, inspecting him like malevolent doctors, slowly, deliberately, squeezing the breath out of him and making him scream.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
