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Malignant vs Nefarious - What's the difference?

malignant | nefarious | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between malignant and nefarious

is that malignant is harmful, malevolent, injurious while nefarious is sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.

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

    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
    ----

    nefarious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.
  • * 1828 , , The Red Rover , ch. 2:
    • "If the vessel be no fair-trading slaver, nor a common cruiser of his Majesty, it is as tangible as the best man's reasoning, that she may be neither more nor less than the ship of that nefarious pirate the Red Rover."
  • * 1877 , , The Life of Cicero , ch. 9:
    • Mommsen . . . declares that Catiline in particular was "one of the most nefarious' men in that ' nefarious age. His villanies belong to the criminal records, not to history."
  • * 1921 , , The Indiscretions of Archie , ch. 26:
    • The fact that the room was still in darkness made it obvious that something nefarious was afoot. Plainly there was dirty work in preparation at the cross-roads.
  • * 2009 Oct. 14, Monica Davey, " Fact Checker Finds Falsehoods in Remarks," New York Times (retrieved 12 May 2014):
    • “I try to let everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington.”

    Usage notes

    * Commonly used in contexts involving villainous plans, conspiracies, or actions, as in: :* 1909 , , The Lady of the Shroud , book 7: ::: The whole nefarious scheme was one of the "put-up jobs" which are part of the dirty work of a certain order of statecraft.

    Synonyms

    * evil, iniquitous, sinister, underhanded, vile * See also

    Derived terms

    * nefariously * nefariousness

    References

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