malignancy — English Dictionary

Noun

1. The state of being malignant or diseased.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

2. A malignant cancer; specifically, any neoplasm that is invasive or otherwise not benign.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

3. That which is malign; evil, depravity, malevolence.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   [T]he malignancie of my fate, might perhaps diſtemper yours; […]

   More examples (2)

   A cold wind swept down from it and set us shivering. Somewhere there, on that desolate plain, was lurking this fiendish man, hiding in a burrow like a wild beast, his heart full of malignancy against the whole race which had cast him out.

   Because of the dearth of recent feminist writing about conditions in mental institutions, it's possible for us to image that they must have improved since the mid-'70s. Millett reminds us forcefully of the hellishness and malignancy of these places, where mind-altering drugs are prescribed punitively or at random, attendants are abusive, food is unhealthy, and numbing boredom, ugliness, pain and filth prevail.

Noun

1. (medicine) a malignant state; progressive and resistant to treatment and tending to cause death

   Synonyms

   malignance

   Broader terms

   disease

2. quality of being disposed to evil; intense ill will

   Synonyms

   malignitymalignance

   Antonyms

   benignancy

   Broader terms

   evilevilness