Meaning of malicious in English

malicious

adjective

/məˈlɪʃ.əs/ uk

/məˈlɪʃ.əs/

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intended to harm or upset other people:

malicious gossip

a malicious look in his eyes

He complained that he'd been receiving malicious phone calls.

He was charged with malicious wounding.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

not kind to someone or something and causing pain

cruelTeasing them for being overweight is cruel.
callousHe had a callous disregard for the feelings of others.
cold-bloodedThe budget is based on a cold-blooded analysis of the markets.
ruthlessHe was a ruthless dictator.
heartlessHe has been described as a heartless boss by several employees.

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intended to cause damage to a computer system, or to steal private information from a computer system:

protection against malicious software/code

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Unkind, cruel & unfeeling

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Dangerous and harmful

Operating computers

Related word

maliciously

(Definition of malicious from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

malicious | Intermediate English

malicious

adjective

/məˈlɪʃ·əs/

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intending to cause harm, esp. by hurting someone’s feelings or reputation:

He says she threatened him and spied on him, among other malicious activities.

(Definition of malicious from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

malicious | Business English

malicious

adjective

/məˈlɪʃəs/ us

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malicious behaviour is intended to harm other people:

The court ruled that she had not acted with malicious intent.

malicious accusations/allegations/gossip

malicious damage/destruction

INTERNET, IT

malicious software or computer programs are designed to damage other people's computers and prevent them from working normally:

Recent incidents have demonstrated how easily malicious hackers are able to disrupt the operations of many large companies.

malicious programs/software

maliciously

adverb

The lawsuit accused the defendant of maliciously using the logo "to cause confusion".

(Definition of malicious from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of malicious

malicious

Malware is short for "malicious software," meaning software that is used solely to gain access to a private computer system.

From Business Insider

Hackers send documents containing the malware and when users click on the link, the malicious code is downloaded into their computers.

From NBCNews.com

It allowed attackers to replace one of the update files with a malicious one.

From Ars Technica

And you must never step on someone else's dreams, unless they are of malicious intent and based on harming people or things.

From Huffington Post

Protecting users necessitates that process, as does the reality that intelligence groups can't ensure that some malicious actor isn't also using an active exploit.

From WIRED

The jokes are "not malicious," though, he said.

From USA TODAY

During the game, the referees felt it was not a dirty, malicious hit.

From NJ.com

Recently, there have been instances of travelers' laptops being infected with malicious software while using hotel internet connections.

From CNN

The big change here is that we're now allowing people who are willing and who are not malicious to do it.

From CBS News

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of malicious?

Translations of malicious

in Chinese (Traditional)

惡意的，惡毒的，意在傷人的, （對電腦系統進行破壞或盜取個人資訊）惡意的…

Meaning of malicious in English

Related word

malicious | Intermediate English

malicious | Business English

maliciously

Examples of malicious

Translations of malicious

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