malignant

UK/məˈlɪɡnənt/US/məˈlɪɡnənt/

adjectiveB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,617 of 15,258neutral

Malignant means cancerous and able to invade the rest of the body. A malignant tumour, malignant cells, proved malignant.

It is the opposite of benign, and the difference is spread rather than size — a benign growth can be large and harmless, and a malignant one small and deadly. Outside medicine the word means actively wishing harm. The Latin means acting badly.

Definitions of malignant

1adjectivemalignantCancerous and able to invade the rest of the body.B2+
“The doctors found a malignant tumour and started treatment at once.”

malignant is a medical quality.

Where it comes from

Latin malignans comes from malignare, to act maliciously, from malus, bad. Malign and malice are relatives.

Latin
malignans
Middle French
malignant
English, today
malignant

From Middle French malignant, from Latin malignans. See malign.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

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malignant in the wild

Outcomes for malignant tumors vary considerably depending on the type of tumor and how far it has spread at diagnosis.
Brain tumor
The average five-year survival rate for all (malignant) brain cancers in the United States is 33%.
Brain tumor
Melanoma is frequently referred to as malignant melanoma.
Melanoma
ICD-10 classifies neoplasms into four main groups: benign neoplasms, in situ neoplasms, malignant neoplasms, and neoplasms of uncertain or unknown behavior.
Neoplasm
Exceptions to this rule may indicate malignant transformation.
Benign tumor

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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