malice means intention to harm or deprive in an illegal or immoral way. Desire to take pleasure in another's misfortune.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, malice ranks #428 of 25,264 for Qualifying, #1,243 of 14,322 for Scariest Words, #2,382 of 14,414 for Most Elegant Words, #3,554 of 14,410 for Most Ponderous Words.
malice is pronounced /ˈmælɪs/.
Why “malice” is a great word
The intention or desire to cause harm, injury, or distress to another, often with a sense of ill will or spite. From Middle English malice, borrowed from Old French malice, from Latin malitia ("badness, ill-will"), from malus ("bad"), first recorded in English c. 1300. Unlike "spite," which flares in petty, personal acts of retaliation, or "animosity," a broad and seething hostility, malice is the colder, more profound intent to enact evil. It is the calculated rumor planted in fertile soil, the poison slipped without haste into the cup, the legal term that transforms accident into crime—a quiet acknowledgment that some harm is not a crime of passion, but a patient, deliberate craft willed into being by the steady light of an extinguished conscience.
Etymology
From Middle English malice, borrowed from Old French malice, from Latin malitia (“badness, bad quality, ill-will, spite”), from malus (“bad”).
noun
- Intention to harm or deprive in an illegal or immoral way. Desire to take pleasure in another's misfortune.“Your voice positively drips malice.”
- An intention to do injury to another party, which in many jurisdictions is a distinguishing factor between the crimes of murder and manslaughter.“The question that would have been before the jury was whether Fox committed “actual malice” in airing the claims. That required Dominion to show whether key decision makers were aware the claims were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.”
verb
- To intend to cause harm; to bear malice.“Thou blinded God (quod I) forgive me this offence, / Unwittingly I went about, to malice thy pretence.”
Words closest in meaning
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