Malignance

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state or quality of being intensely harmful, hostile, or destructive in nature or intent, or the aggressive and life-threatening character of a disease or tumor
2. A condition of profound wickedness, destructiveness, or danger that is either inherent or deliberate, including the malevolent progression of serious illness
3. A quality of causing severe harm or having a strongly malevolent intent ; a state of being threatening or aggressively dangerous often used to describe diseases or situations

Etymology: "Malignance" is a noun built from "malignant" plus the suffix "-ance," which turns an adjective into a noun naming a state or quality. "Malignant" itself comes from Latin "malignus," made of "male," meaning "badly" or "ill," and "gignere," meaning "to be born" or "to produce," so the root sense is something like "ill-born" or "ill-disposed." Over time the adjective shifted from describing a person's ill will toward others to describing the aggressive, spreading character of a disease or tumor, and the noun carries both senses. The Oxford English Dictionary records "malignance" as a noun, and the entry notes that it may derive directly from "malignantia," a Latin form, rather than only from the English adjective plus suffix. Either pathway produces the same meaning: a quality of hostility or destructiveness.

Synonyms: malevolence, wickedness

Antonyms: benevolence, kindness