malevolence

English

WOTD – 12 August 2006

Etymology

From Middle French malevolence, from Latin malevolentia (“malevolence”), derived from malevolēns (“malevolent”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /məˈlɛvələns/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

malevolence (countable and uncountable, plural malevolences)

1. Hostile attitude or feeling.

   to show someone malevolence

   He said it with malevolence.

   • 2023 July 5, Murtada Elfadl, “Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One review: Tom Cruise runs, jumps, and delivers again”, in AV Club‎^[1]:

     Esai Morales appears as the enforcer for “the entity‘’ and brings such simmering malevolence to the character that he should have been the villain instead.

2. Behavior exhibiting a hostile attitude.

Synonyms

• (attitude or feeling): ill-will, malice, spite

Antonyms

• benevolence

Related terms

• malevolent

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *welh₁-‎ (0 c, 15 e)

Translations

hostile feeling and attitude

• Armenian: չարակամություն (hy) (čʻarakamutʻyun)
• Belarusian: варожасць f (varóžascʹ), нядобразычлівасць f (njadóbrazyčlivascʹ)
• Bulgarian: злоба (bg) f (zloba), неприязън (bg) f (neprijazǎn)
• Catalan: malevolència f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: kwaadwil m, vijandigheid (nl) m, moedwil (nl) m, misgunst m, malevolentie f
• Finnish: pahantahtoisuus (fi)
• French: malveillance (fr) f, hostilité (fr) f
• Galician: malevolencia f
• German: Böswilligkeit f, Missgunst (de) f
• Greek: εμπάθεια (el) f (empátheia), κακοβουλία (el) f (kakovoulía), μοχθηρία (el) f (mochthiría)

  Ancient: κᾰκοθῡμίᾱ f (kakothūmíā)

• Italian: malevolenza (it) f
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: bedniyetî (ku) f, belakirrî (ku) f

• Latin: malevolentia f
• Macedonian: зло́ба f (zlóba)
• Old English: yfelwillendnes f
• Polish: wrogość (pl) f, złowrogość (pl) f
• Portuguese: malevolência
• Romanian: rea-voință (ro) f, ostilitate (ro) f, pizmă (ro) f
• Russian: злопыха́тельство (ru) n (zlopyxátelʹstvo), недоброжела́тельность (ru) f (nedobroželátelʹnostʹ), вражде́бность (ru) f (vraždébnostʹ)
• Spanish: malevolencia f
• Welsh: malais (cy) m