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Malignant vs Harmful - What's the difference?

malignant | harmful |

As adjectives the difference between malignant and harmful

is that malignant is harmful, malevolent, injurious while harmful is of a kind likely to be damaging; injurious.

As a noun malignant

is .

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

    Related terms

    * nonmalignant

    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
    ----

    harmful

    English

    Alternative forms

    * harmfull (archaic)

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • of a kind likely to be damaging; injurious
    • Wear a hat to protect your skin from harmful sunlight.

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "harmful" is often applied: effect, consequence, impact, influence, emission, chemical, ingredient, substance, gas, agent, additive, drug, radiation, dust, organism, plant, animal, insect, action, act, behavior, component, content, activity, interference, use.

    Synonyms

    * injurious; see also

    Antonyms

    * beneficial * harmless

    See also

    * harm