malignity

noun

"malignity" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“malignity” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The quality of being malign or malignant; badness, evilness, monstrosity, depravity, maliciousness.

Corpus desk

Index EN-malignity · malignity · English

malignity · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "M" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for malignity
PropertyValue
Headwordmalignity
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “malignity” in English

malignitysits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

malignity is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for malignity in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English malignete, malignitee, malignyte, malyngnite, from Middle French maligneté, from Latin malignitās. By surface analysis, malign + -ity. * (a group of goblins): Coined by David Malki in the 30 October 2009 Wondermark webcomic strip “Supern… The correct English form is malignity, spelled M-A-L-I-G-N-I-T-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    The quality of being malign or malignant; badness, evilness, monstrosity, depravity, maliciousness.
  2. 2
    A non-benign cancer; a malignancy.
  3. 3
    A group of goblins.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how malignity appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. He had some advantage in the difference of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, […] His obvious malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he exhausted every feint and strategem proper to the science of defence; while, at the same time, he mediated the most desperate catastrophe to our rencounter.
  2. His enjoyment of the spectacle I furnished, as he sat with his arms folded on the table, shaking his head at me and hugging himself, had a malignity in it that made me tremble.

Etymology

From Middle English malignete, malignitee, malignyte, malyngnite, from Middle French maligneté, from Latin malignitās. By surface analysis, malign + -ity. * (a group of goblins): Coined by David Malki in the 30 October 2009 Wondermark webcomic strip “Supernatural Collective Nouns”.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "malignity"?
"malignity" is spelled M-A-L-I-G-N-I-T-Y.
What does "malignity" mean?
As a noun, "malignity" means: The quality of being malign or malignant; badness, evilness, monstrosity, depravity, maliciousness.
What is the origin of the word "malignity"?
From Middle English malignete, malignitee, malignyte, malyngnite, from Middle French maligneté, from Latin malignitās. By surface analysis, malign + -ity. * (a group of goblins): Coined by David Malki in the 30 October 2009 Wondermark webcomic str... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list