adjective
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characterized by malice
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motivated by wrongful, vicious, or mischievous purposes
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of malicious
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English malicius, from Old French, from Latin malitiōsus; see 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.
That wasn’t enough for Kennedy, who says the school has acted “willful, malicious, oppressive, fraudulent” and “despicable” as it planned its facility improvements.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
"We strongly believe there was no malicious intent on their part," Delangue wrote, referring to OpenAI.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Scammers will ask you to provide or verify personal information, account login details or two-factor authentication codes, transfer money to them or download malicious software, it says.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
Beijing is concerned that sharing some of this technology could help adversaries or other malicious actors and ultimately get weaponized against China, the people said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
She alone had known how to outsmart the malicious mountain Ka’t’sina who imprisoned the rain clouds in the northwest room of his magical house.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
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.
