Make Your Point: MALIGNANT

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pronounce MALIGNANT:

muh LIG nunt

connect this word to others:

(Source)

Have you seen the movie Casper, the one from 1995? It's awesome. It's got Eric Idle, Christina Ricci, and both kinds of ghosts: the malignant Stretch, Fatso, and Stinkie, who do their best to scare people of their minds; and the ben___ Casper, who's gentle, friendly, and kind.

Can you recall that word, ben___? It's the precise opposite of malignant.

Let's peek inside malignant, which traces back to a Latin word, malignus, meaning "wicked or bad-natured," or more literally, "born bad." The mal- part means "bad," and the -gnus part means "born." So you can see why malignant resembles other words about badness, like malevolent and malapropos; and why it resembles other words about birth, like gender, generate, progeny, and indigenous.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

We've used the word "malignant" in English since the 1500s, originally to describe people and things that rebelled against God, and later to describe anything evil or harmful.

Today, malignant things and people are evil and harmful, as if ready and willing to actively hurt people; and in the field of medicine, malignant things are cancerous, or dangerous or fatal to the body.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "a malignant attitude;" "The disease is malignant."

Other forms:

There's a very similar adjective, "malign," which can mean the same thing as "malignant." As best I can tell, the adjective "malign" carries a slightly more formal and more old-fashioned tone than "malignant." (And "malign" also works as a verb, meaning "to speak ill of people." Here's the full issue for "malign.")

The adverb is "malignantly."

The noun is "malignance," or if you prefer, "malignancy."

how to use it:

Pick the common, formal, serious word "malignant" when you want to call attention to someone or something that seems evil, like it's filled with bitter anger and eager to make people suffer.

You might talk about malignant eyes, faces, looks, stances; or about malignant forces, beings, and powers; or, you might talk more literally about malignant cells and diseases.

examples:

"There was a malignant force out there, and she knew she had to open her eyes and look it in the face."
— Malinda Lo, Huntress, 2011

"But Carrington had lost his self-control. Without a word, but with a smothered imprecation that issued gutturally from between his clenched teeth, he swung a fist with bitter malignance at Taylor's face."
— Charles Alden Seltzer, The Ranchman, 1919

has this page helped you understand "malignant"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "malignant" without saying "cancerous" or "malicious."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Someone) glared malignantly at (someone else)."

Example 1: "He glared malignantly at his older brother, who had raced ahead and been the first to push the button for the elevator."

Example 2: "A corpulent and rapidly ageing citizen, shrinking apprehensively into a corner of the compartment and holding a small handbag upon his knees as if with a view to instant departure, sat glaring malignantly upon them."
— Ian Hay, A Safety Match, 1970

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "Oh Hey, That's the Title!"

I'll give you a short excerpt from a novel, a play, or a short story. In this excerpt, a character or a narrator actually says the story's title. (If not verbatim, then almost.) And you give me the story's title.

Highlight the hints if you need them, and see the answer by scrolling all the way down. Enjoy!

Try this one today:

"I am an _____ _____. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind... People refuse to see me."

To reveal the hints below, highlight the hidden white text.

Hint 1: This story was published in the year... 1952.
Hint 2: This story was written by... "Ralph Ellison."
Hint 3: The first letters of each word in this title are... "I_____ M_____."

review this word:

1. The precise opposite of MALIGNANCE is BENIGNANCY, BENIGNITY, or BENIGNNESS. But a pretty close opposite of MALIGNANCE is

A. HEALTH.
B. GOODWILL.
C. GOOD LUCK.

2. In Rebecca Carvalho's Salt and Sugar, _____, just like in Romeo and Juliet.

A. the protagonists fall deeply, malignantly in love
B. the two families harbor a malignant grudge against each other
C. the priest and the nurse, like loving parents, give malignant advice to the main characters

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > MALIGNANT

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