adjective
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characterized by malice
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motivated by wrongful, vicious, or mischievous purposes
Other Word Forms
- maliciously adverb
- maliciousness noun
- nonmalicious adjective
- nonmaliciously adverb
- semimalicious adjective
- semimaliciously adverb
- unmalicious adjective
- unmaliciously adverb
Etymology
Origin of malicious
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English malicius, from Old French, from Latin malitiōsus; malice, -ous
Explanation
Someone who is malicious enjoys hurting or embarrassing others. If you're writing a book about good and evil, you'll want to come up with a truly malicious character to do all the bad stuff. Malicious is the adjective based on the noun malice, which means the desire to harm others. Both words come from the Latin word malus, for bad. If someone is malicious he doesn't just make bad things happen; he loves to make bad things happen.
Vocabulary lists containing malicious
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 2
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Fake It 'Til You Make It: Synonyms for "False"
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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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.
Meyers saw embedding a tiny AI model directly into malicious code infecting networks as a natural tactic to be explored by hackers.
From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026
She brought a civil-rights suit for false arrest, malicious prosecution, and conspiracy.
From Slate • Apr. 6, 2026
Studying the data, engineers from the company realized that some of the malicious traffic was coming from an employee’s home address.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
The worry isn’t so much that AI will replace cybersecurity tools; rather, malicious actors will use AI to get through the security systems.
From Barron's • Mar. 27, 2026
Heretofore all the campus gossip had seemed merely malicious and disrespectful; now I could see the advantage for Dr. Bledsoe.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Definitions 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.
