malevolent
adjective
Simple meaning
Having or displaying ill will.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhlehvuhluhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
məˈlɛvələnt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Having or displaying ill will; wishing harm on others.
Having an evil or harmful influence.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Having or displaying ill will; wishing harm on others.
Used this way, malevolent is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A computer program designed to have undesirable or harmful effects.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.