malice.

1. Ill will expressed as a wish or intention to cause harm.

2. A wrongful mental state required for certain legal offenses, whose precise content depends on the law involved.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• without malice
• deliberate malice

On the page

She found deliberate malice in the choice of the final sentence.

He insisted the mistake had been made without malice.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychological / character. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.