MALEVOLENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does malevolence mean? 

• MALEVOLENCE (noun)
  The noun MALEVOLENCE has 2 senses:

1. wishing evil to others

2. the quality of threatening evil

  Familiarity information: MALEVOLENCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MALEVOLENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wishing evil to others

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

malevolence; malignity

Hypernyms ("malevolence" is a kind of...):

hate; hatred (the emotion of intense dislike; a feeling of dislike so strong that it demands action)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "malevolence"):

maleficence (doing or causing evil)

malice; maliciousness; spite; spitefulness; venom (feeling a need to see others suffer)

vengefulness; vindictiveness (a malevolent desire for revenge)

Antonym:

benevolence (disposition to do good)

Derivation:

malevolent (wishing or appearing to wish evil to others; arising from intense ill will or hatred)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of threatening evil

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

malevolence; malevolency; malice

Hypernyms ("malevolence" is a kind of...):

evil; evilness (the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "malevolence"):

bitchiness; cattiness; nastiness; spite; spitefulness (malevolence by virtue of being malicious or spiteful or nasty)

cruelness; cruelty; harshness (the quality of being cruel and causing tension or annoyance)

beastliness; meanness (the quality of being deliberately mean)

Derivation:

malevolent (having or exerting a malignant influence)

 Context examples 

They went away by one of the London night coaches, and I know no more about him; except that his malevolence to me at parting was audacious.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is a reasonable and laudable pride which resists such malevolence.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

In spite of the wives' agreement that such malevolence was beyond credibility, the dispute ended in a short struggle, and both wives were lifted kicking into the night.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)