as in malicious
having or showing a desire to cause someone pain or suffering for the sheer enjoyment of it
both parties to the divorce showed a malign desire to make each other's future life utterly miserable
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in to libel
to make untrue and harmful statements about
a candidate who believes that it is possible to win an election without maligning anyone
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of malign
Daniel R. Green, Baltimore Sun, 15 Dec. 2024
Project Texas would provide for a series of audits and code reviews of the algorithm in the United States, in which U.S. actors, including engineers at Oracle Corporation, would have an opportunity to detect any malign foreign influence over the recommendations engine.
—Emily Baker-White, Forbes, 16 Sep. 2024
Adrianna Rodriguez, USA Today, 15 Apr. 2025
Seed oils, maligned by both the crunchy left and the MAHA right, may get their revenge.
—Rachel Sugar, The Atlantic, 11 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for malign
Adjective
Other necessary actions would include reducing malign economic influence, curtailing their global trade, and tightening what would likely be a robust set of sanctions.
—Daniel R. Green, Baltimore Sun, 15 Dec. 2024
Project Texas would provide for a series of audits and code reviews of the algorithm in the United States, in which U.S. actors, including engineers at Oracle Corporation, would have an opportunity to detect any malign foreign influence over the recommendations engine.
—Emily Baker-White, Forbes, 16 Sep. 2024
Verb
Kennedy's rhetoric on autism has been welcome in some corners of the autism community and maligned in others.
—Adrianna Rodriguez, USA Today, 15 Apr. 2025
Seed oils, maligned by both the crunchy left and the MAHA right, may get their revenge.
—Rachel Sugar, The Atlantic, 11 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for malign
Recent Examples of Synonyms for malign
Adjective
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Enhances visibility and control of network traffic and user activities and detects and blocks malicious activities.—
Mickey Singh,
Forbes.com,
23 May 2025
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The malicious URLs outputted in the response are in clickable form, meaning all a user has to do is click one to be taken to a malicious site.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
23 May 2025
Verb
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In 2022, Manhattan Federal Judge Jed Rakoff, who presided over both trials, decided The Times was not liable for defamation while jurors were deliberating, that the error amounted to unfortunate editorializing but not libel.—
Molly Crane-Newman,
New York Daily News,
22 Apr. 2025
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As a new, inexpensive Chevrolet appeared in 1927 and The Dearborn Independent was sued for libeling a number of Jewish businessmen, Ford threw in the towel and apologized.—
George Pendle,
airmail.news,
15 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The reason Evin is infamous is because of its terribly cruel high security detention centers that are poorly supervised by the Prison Chief.—
Jeff Kaufman,
Time,
30 May 2025
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But then perhaps that is her unsatisfying but depressingly undeniable point: there is no challenging minds this small, behaviors this cruel, spirits this mean.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
30 May 2025
Verb
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Also, faint objects appear even fainter because their light is smeared out.—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
15 May 2025
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Smartmatic wants an even bigger payday than Dominion Voting Systems, which was similarly smeared by Fox News and settled a defamation lawsuit with the network in 2023 for a whopping $787 million.—
Marshall Cohen,
CNN Money,
14 May 2025
Adjective
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The original 2006 film, which was adapted from Lauren Weisberger’s book of the same name, starred Meryl Streep as the powerful Miranda Priestley, Anne Hathaway as fashion newbie Andy Sachs, Emily Blunt as vicious assistant Emily and Stanley Tucci as Miranda’s right hand man Nigel.—
Rachel McRady,
People.com,
23 May 2025
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Noem are working every day to get vicious criminals out of our country while activist judges are fighting to bring them back onto American soil.—
Sonam Sheth,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 May 2025
Verb
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Publicly vilified for freezing during the massacre, Gerald, an ex-school resource officer, lives under a shroud of shame, questioning his will to survive.—
Matthew Carey,
Deadline,
22 May 2025
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Now, of course, politics gets involved, and the border gets less porous, and people get vilified on both sides.—
Josh Crutchmer,
Rolling Stone,
17 May 2025
Adjective
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Of note: Your Content must not be false, defamatory, misleading or hateful, or infringe any copyright or any other third-party rights or otherwise be unlawful.—
Will Matsuda,
New York Times,
23 May 2025
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The league is focused on four key areas: enhanced technological features to detect hateful comments online; increased emphasis on team, arena and league security measures; reinforcing mental health resources; and alignment of core against hate.—
Doug Feinberg,
Chicago Tribune,
18 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Malign.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/malign. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
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