malignity
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.43 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The quality of being malign or malignant; badness, evilness, monstrosity, depravity, maliciousness.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "He had some advantage in the difference of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, […] His obvious malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he exhausted every feint and strategem proper to the science of defence; while, at the same time, he mediated the most desperate catastrophe to our rencounter."
- "His enjoyment of the spectacle I furnished, as he sat with his arms folded on the table, shaking his head at me and hugging himself, had a malignity in it that made me tremble."
- "On the door-threshold Mina turned, and her eyes fastened on Woona in concentrated malignity."
- "The absence of any histological sign of malignity in the primary tumor and in the metastases, as observed in our patient, is remarkable."
- "There was a whole malignity‡ of goblins up on the roof, but if you wanted your clacks to fly fast, you didn’t use the term out loud."
- "A malignity of goblins chattered loudly, some of them standing on their table."
Etymology
From Middle English malignete, malignitee, malignyte, malyngnite, from Middle French maligneté, from Latin malignitās. By surface analysis, malign + -ity. * (a group of goblins): Coined by David Malki in the 30 October 2009 Wondermark webcomic strip “Supernatural Collective Nouns”.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: malignete, maligneté, malignitās