MALIGNANCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does malignance mean? 

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

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

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

  Familiarity information: MALIGNANCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MALIGNANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

malignance; malignancy

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

disease (an impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning)

Meronyms (parts of "malignance"):

cancer cell (a cell that is part of a malignant tumor)

Domain category:

medical specialty; medicine (the branches of medical science that deal with nonsurgical techniques)

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

malignant neoplasm; malignant tumor; metastatic tumor (a tumor that is malignant and tends to spread to other parts of the body)

Derivation:

malignant (dangerous to health; characterized by progressive and uncontrolled growth (especially of a tumor))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Quality of being disposed to evil; intense ill will

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

malignance; malignancy; malignity

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

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

Attribute:

malign (evil or harmful in nature or influence)