malicious
adjective/məˈlɪʃəs/
/məˈlɪʃəs/
- having or showing a desire to harm somebody or hurt their feelings, caused by a feeling of hate synonym malevolent, spiteful
- malicious gossip/lies/rumours
- He took malicious pleasure in telling me what she had said.
Extra ExamplesTopics Personal qualitiesc1- Has someone been spreading malicious gossip?
- There is no truth whatsoever to the malicious rumours.
- His observations were funny without being malicious.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- rather
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- (computing) (of software or computer code) intended to damage somebody's computer or data files
- These are nasty pieces of malicious code such as viruses, Trojan horses and worms.
- malicious software/applications
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French malicios, from Latin malitiosus, from malitia, from malus ‘bad’.
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malicious