Malignant: Keystone SAT Vocabulary
Challenge yourself: MALIGNANT most nearly means: A) reluctant; B) mundane; C) benevolent; D) harmful. Answer inside.
📰 Examples of Malignant
Here are some examples of the word malignant:
It began as a minor disagreement between neighbors, but grew into a malignant enmity that would end only after police involvement.
In medicine, a malignant tumor is distinguished from a benign one by its ability to invade surrounding tissues and metastasize [spread] to other organs.
Here’s a way to remember malignant: think of the Latin root mal-, meaning bad; it’s the same root found in malice, malfunction, and malpractice.
Quiz answer: D, harmful.
🧠Summary of Malignant
Definition: Malignant means deeply harmful, evil in nature, or disposed to cause suffering and destruction.
Real-world connection: While most people encounter this word in medical contexts (describing cancerous tumors), the SAT and advanced reading passages frequently use it in its broader sense to describe people, influences, rumors, or forces that are aggressively harmful.
Examples: A malignant rumor that destroys a reputation, a malignant leader who corrupts an organization, or the malignant spread of misinformation online.
SAT relevance: Malignant could appear as a vocabulary-in-context question where students must recognize the non-medical meaning, or as an answer choice testing whether you know it means something far stronger and more insidious than simply ‘bad’.