malicious
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.
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having the nature of or resulting from malice“malicious gossip”“"took malicious pleasure in...watching me wince"- Rudyard Kipling”
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Synonyms:
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despiteful, malignant, spiteful, vindictive
showing malicious ill will and a desire to hurt; motivated by spite
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leering
showing sly or knowing malice in a glance
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malevolent
wishing or appearing to wish evil to others; arising from intense ill will or hatred
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beady-eyed
having eyes that gleam with malice
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bitchy, cattish, catty
marked by or arising from malice
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poisonous, venomous, vicious
marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful
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venomed
full of malice or hate
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vixenish
shrewish and malicious
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Antonyms:
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unmalicious
not malicious or spiteful
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despiteful, malignant, spiteful, vindictive
/məˈlɪʃəs/
/məˈlɪʃɪs/
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Vocabulary lists containing malicious
Nathan, an eleven-year-old Navajo boy, sets out on a journey to find a cure for a sick water monster that he discovers in a desert.
This classic tale tells the story of the Clock family, a group of tiny people who live under the floorboards of a grandfather clock, and survive by sneakily "borrowing" food and small items from the humans who live in the house.
On the ACT Reading Test, you will almost certainly encounter questions that ask about an author's tone — that is, the author's attitude toward their subject matter. Master our comprehensive collection of common words used to describe an author's tone, and you'll be well prepared to tackle these questions.
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