malignancy
noun/məˈlɪɡ.nən.si/
Etymology From malignant + -cy or malign + -ancy or Latin malignantia.
1
The state of being malignant or diseased.
2
A malignant cancer; specifically, any neoplasm that is invasive or otherwise not benign.
3
That which is malign; evil, depravity, malevolence.
- [T]he malignancie of my fate, might perhaps diſtemper yours; […]c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 260, column 1:
- A cold wind swept down from it and set us shivering. Somewhere there, on that desolate plain, was lurking this fiendish man, hiding in a burrow like a wild beast, his heart full of malignancy against the whole race which had cast him out.1901 August – 1902 April, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Baskerville Hall”, in The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, […], published 1902, →OCLC, page 115:
1 more example
- Because of the dearth of recent feminist writing about conditions in mental institutions, it's possible for us to image that they must have improved since the mid-'70s. Millett reminds us forcefully of the hellishness and malignancy of these places, where mind-altering drugs are prescribed punitively or at random, attendants are abusive, food is unhealthy, and numbing boredom, ugliness, pain and filth prevail.1990 August 31, Amy Hoffman, “"Crazy" Or Just Crazy?”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 7, page 11:
- Synonyms
- malignance, malignity
- Antonyms
- benignancy, benignity
- Derived terms
- hematomalignancy, lymphomalignancy, nonmalignancy, premalignancy, pseudomalignancy
- Related terms
- malign, malignly, malignment