malignity

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word malignity. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word malignity, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say malignity in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word malignity you have here. The definition of the word malignity will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofmalignity, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

From Middle English malignete, malignitee, malignyte, malyngnite, from Middle French maligneté, from Latin malignitās. By surface analysis, malign +‎ -ity.

Noun

malignity (countable and uncountable, plural malignities)

  1. The quality of being malign or malignant; badness, evilness, monstrosity, depravity, maliciousness.
    • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), , chapter XII, in Rob Roy.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume II, Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. ; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages 251–252:
      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.
    • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter LIII, in Great Expectations  In Three Volumes">…], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, , published October 1861, →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 265:
      On the door-threshold Mina turned, and her eyes fastened on Woona in concentrated malignity.
  2. A non-benign cancer; a malignancy.
    • 2005, R.L. Abada et al., “Multiple metastases of a mandibular ameloblastoma”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:
      The absence of any histological sign of malignity in the primary tumor and in the metastases, as observed in our patient, is remarkable.
  3. (fantasy, neologism, collective) A group of goblins.
    • 2013, Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam (Discworld; 40), London: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 31:
      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.
      ‡ The official collective noun for a bunch of goblins.
    • 2022, JT Lawrence, The Haunted Portal (Cursebreaker; 2), Muonic Press Inc, →ISBN:
      A malignity of goblins chattered loudly, some of them standing on their table.
    • 2023, Nova Nelson, All the Faire’s a Stage (Magical Renaissance Faire Mysteries; 7), The Faire Ladies LLC, →ISBN:
      As a malignity of goblins giggled drunkenly in a corner booth, Fabian and I approached the table with Isaac and Hakim.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:malignity.

References

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia