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Malignant vs Dire - What's the difference?

malignant | dire | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between malignant and dire

is that malignant is harmful, malevolent, injurious while dire is warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.

As a noun malignant

is 1823, The Retrospective Review (volume 7, page 11.

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
    ----

    dire

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.
  • Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.
  • Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable.
  • (label) Bad in quality, awful, terrible.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 10, author=Arindam Rej, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Norwich 4-2 Newcastle , passage=A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.}}

    Derived terms

    * direful * direly * direness * dire sisters * dire straits * dire wolf

    See also

    * voir dire

    Anagrams

    * * * ----