malice aforethought
noun
Simple meaning
Criminal intent; the thoughts and intentions behind a wrongful act.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
maluhsuhfawrthahtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmæləsəfɔɹθɑt
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.
noun
law
Criminal intent; the thoughts and intentions behind a wrongful act (including knowledge that the act is illegal); often at issue in murder trials
law
The criminal intent which precedes a crime, especially murder.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Criminal intent; the thoughts and intentions behind a wrongful act (including knowledge that the act is illegal); often at issue in murder trials
Used this way, malice aforethought is a specialist word carrying real weight of difficulty or hurt. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.