What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Catty vs Malignant - What's the difference?

catty | malignant | Synonyms |

Catty is a synonym of malignant.


As adjectives the difference between catty and malignant

is that catty is (informal|of a person or remark) with subtle hostility in an effort to hurt, annoy or upset, particularly among women while malignant is harmful, malevolent, injurious.

As nouns the difference between catty and malignant

is that catty is a (unit of) weight used in china, generally standardized as half a kilogram while malignant is .

catty

English

Alternative forms

* cattie

Etymology 1

; in sense “hostility”, see (m).

Adjective

(er)
  • (informal, of a person or remark) With subtle hostility in an effort to hurt, annoy or upset, particularly among women.
  • (informal) Resembling or characteristic of a cat.
  • a catty smell
    Synonyms
    * (spiteful) bitchy (derogatory), cattish, malicious, nasty, snide, spiteful
    See also
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) kati, from (etyl) languages, Mandarin:

    Noun

    (head)
  • A (unit of) weight used in China, generally standardized as half a kilogram.
  • * 2009 , Huaiyin Li, Village China Under Socialism and Reform: A Micro-History, 1948-2008 , Stanford University Press, ISBN 978-0-8047-5974-8, page 94:
  • To limit team members' consumption, it issued food stamps to the villagers and allowed everyone to eat one catty of rice a day.
  • * 1699 , Captain William Dampier, A new voyage round the world, Volume 1 :
  • 16 Mess'', make a ''Tale'', which here is 20 ''s''. ''English'', 5 ''Tale'' make a ''Bancal'', a weight so called, and 20 ''Bancal'' make a ''Catty , another weight.
  • * 1847 , Robert Montgomery Martin, China; Political, Commercial, and Social , Volume 2, James Madden (publisher), page 124:
  • Transparent yellow pieces are the best; the price is from eight to fourteen dollars per catty , according to size and quality.
    See also
    * (Hong Kong units) chek , tsun , fan , picul , tael , mace , candareen , tsin , leung , kan , tam English terms with multiple etymologies

    malignant

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Harmful, malevolent, injurious.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes
  • (medicine) Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue.
  • malignant diphtheria
    a malignant tumor

    Antonyms

    * (medicine) benign

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • * 1823 , The Retrospective Review (volume 7, page 11)
  • As devout Stephen was carried to his burial by devout men, so is it just and equal that malignants should carry malignants
    ----