malignancy
Americannoun
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malignancies
plural
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the quality or condition of being malignant.
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malignant character, behavior, action, or the like.
the malignancies of war.
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a malignant tumor.
noun
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the state or quality of being malignant
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pathol a cancerous growth
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of malignancy
First recorded in 1595–1605; malign(ant) + -ancy
Vocabulary lists containing malignancy
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.
See Examples For:
But he sure makes the strongest case for being the most malevolent, influential force there, a malignancy that poisons everything he touches.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026
Nothing in these stories, translated by Megan McDowell, is quite impossible, yet the shadow of numinous malignancy hangs over everything.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
Not because cancer had been ruled out — it’s possible that the tests might have missed a subtle malignancy, still brewing.
From Salon ● May 20, 2025
By the time the lecture was over, he knew that he would drop all of his ongoing projects to find the cause of the unusual malignancy.
From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2024
The full maturing of whatever seeds of malignancy have been sown by these chemicals is yet to come.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
She replied that the doctor would have immediately talked to my father and me if he had found visible malignancies, but that the biopsy would say more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2026
In women aged 40 to 49 the most common malignancies were breast, melanoma, and colorectal cancers.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2024
While there has been increasing adoption of minimally invasive surgical techniques in gastrointestinal malignancies, including utilization of laparoscopic and robotic surgery, there are reservations in utilizing minimally invasive surgery for gallbladder cancer.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 5, 2024
The most common side effects of Xolair are injection site reactions and fever, but the FDA noted that the drug has also been associated with joint pain, rash, parasitic infections, malignancies and abnormal laboratory tests.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 16, 2024
There is, however, one presently known exception to the fact that a long period of latency is common to most malignancies.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
