English edit

Etymology edit

malignant +‎ -cy or malign +‎ -ancy

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /məˈlɪɡ.nən.si/

Noun edit

malignancy (countable and uncountable, plural malignancies)

  1. The state of being malignant or diseased.
  2. A malignant cancer; specifically, any neoplasm that is invasive or otherwise not benign.
  3. That which is malign; evil, depravity, malevolence.
    • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      The malignancy of my fate might perhaps distemper yours.
    • 1902, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles[1]:
      A cold wind swept down from it and set us shivering. Somewhere there, on that desolate plain, was lurking this fiendish man, hiding in a burrow like a wild beast, his heart full of malignancy against the whole race which had cast him out.

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