malignancy

Definition

The state of being malignant or diseased.

Etymology

From malignant + -cy or malign + -ancy or Latin malignantia.

Example Sentences

• "[T]he malignancie of my fate, might perhaps diſtemper yours; […]"
• "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."
• "Because of the dearth of recent feminist writing about conditions in mental institutions, it's possible for us to image that they must have improved since the mid-'70s. Millett reminds us forcefully of the hellishness and malignancy of these places, where mind-altering drugs are prescribed punitively or at random, attendants are abusive, food is unhealthy, and numbing boredom, ugliness, pain and filth prevail."

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