malignant

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adjective

1. Characterized by intense ill will or spite: black, despiteful, evil, hateful, malevolent, malicious, malign, mean², nasty, poisonous, spiteful, venomous, vicious, wicked. Slang bitchy. See attitude/good attitude/bad attitude/neutral attitude.
2. Extremely destructive or harmful: baneful, deadly, noxious, pernicious, pestilent, pestilential, virulent. See help/harm/harmless.

adj

Definition: diseased
Antonyms: benign, harmless, uncancerous

Any condition that is life-threatening. The term pertains especially to cancers that may spread and lead to death.

A descriptive term for things or conditions that threaten life or well-being. Malignant is the opposite of benign.

The term malignant is used in describing cancerous tumors (see cancer) because such growths are a threat to the health of the individual.

The term is often used in a general way to denote something that is both destructive and fast growing: “The malignant growth of the suburbs is destroying the landscape.”

(in pathology)

1. (of a tumour) invasive, spreading, resistant to therapy.
2. (of a disorder) becoming progressively more serious if not treated.

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Tending to become progressively worse and to result in death; having the properties of anaplasia, invasiveness and metastasis; said of tumors.

• m. aphtha — see contagious ecthyma.
• m. carbuncle — a form of anthrax in humans.
• m. catarrhal fever (MCF) — an acute highly infectious, fatal herpesvirus disease of cattle, farmed deer and occasionally pigs characterized by an erosive stomatitis and gastroenteritis, erosions on the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, keratoconjunctivitis, encephalitis, and lymphadenopathy. There are at least two viruses involved. A wildebeest-associated form of the disease is caused by alcephaline herpesvirus 1. It occurs in most African countries in cattle which co-mingle with clinically normal wildebeest and hartebeest. It is epizootic and seasonal. It can also occur in zoological gardens in other countries. Sheep-associated MCF is caused by a poorly characterized virus, presumably ovine herpesvirus 2 (OvHV-2). Cases mostly occur when cattle have had contact with lambing ewes and usually start 1–2 months later. Goats can also act as a source of OvHV-2 infection for cattle. Cases without apparent or recent exposure to sheep do occur but are uncommon. Called also bovine malignant catarrh.
• m. edema — an acute infection of wounds by Clostridium septicum, C. chauvoei, C. perfringens, C. sordellii or C. novyi. The inflammation causes severe swelling and discoloration of skin and exposed tissues. There may be local subcutaneous emphysema and a frothy exudate, depending on the identity of the invading organism. There is a high fever and a profound toxemia; death follows within a few hours if treatment is not provided. Special occurrences are when a large number of animals are affected at one time. These include involvement of the vulva in recently lambed ewes, of shearing or docking wounds, and of the umbilicus or eyes of recently born lambs.
• m. fibrous histiocytoma — a rare aggressive tumor of dogs and cats; composed of densely packed fibroblasts and histiocytes.
• m. head catarrh — see malignant catarrhal fever.
• m. histiocytosis — see malignant histiocytosis.
• m. hyperthermia — see malignant hyperthermia, porcine stress syndrome.
• m. lymphoma — see lymphosarcoma.
• m. pustule — see malignant carbuncle (above).
• m. theileriasis — theileriasis caused by Theileria hirci.

(məlig'nənt)
adj

1. resistant to treatment. adj 2. able to metastasize and kill the host.

For a list of words related to malignant, see:

• Diagnostic Terminology - malignant: (adj) consisting of a tumor that invades and destroys tissue in which it originates and can spread to other sites in body through vascular system
• Bad, False, Evil, Insincere, or Dishonest

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See words rhyming with "malignant."

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - ondsindet, ondartet

Nederlands (Dutch)
kwaadaardig, schadelijk

Français (French)
adj. - malveillant, malfaisant

Deutsch (German)
adj. - bösartig

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - κακοήθης, κακεντρεχής

Italiano (Italian)
maligno

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - maligno, virulento

Русский (Russian)
зловредный, злокачественный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - maligno, dañino

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - ondskefull, olycksbringande, malign

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
有恶意的, 有害的, 恶性的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 有惡意的, 有害的, 惡性的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 극히 해로운, 악성의

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 悪意のある, 悪性の

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) حقود, يتمنى السوء ل‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮ממאיר, זדוני, רע‬

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