How to Use malevolent in a Sentence

malevolent

adjective
  • This was a man who viewed his body as a swarming hive of malevolent bees.
    — Denise Davidson Writer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Aug. 2021
  • The malevolent forces of the world hide there; the ghouls who give us nightmares and ill omens and bad luck.
    — Caitlin Penzeymoog, Vox, 7 Oct. 2024
  • Their love and faith are soon tested by a malevolent presence.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 9 May 2025
  • Why are all the adults in the story—save, perhaps, one or two—malevolent?
    — Willing Davidson, The New Yorker, 9 Nov. 2020
  • That, at any rate, is how the more malevolent critics of Herodotus would put it.
    — Tom Holland, WSJ, 30 Mar. 2017
  • But there is also a strange malevolent presence on board, sensed by the team's telepath.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 29 Nov. 2018
  • The main thing is that there's just something malevolent about parrots.
    — John Kass, chicagotribune.com, 4 May 2017
  • Each of these ten stories pitted a hero against a malevolent one-eyed giant.
    — Ferris Jabr, Harper's magazine, 10 Mar. 2019
  • For months, the team has seemed to be in the grip of an invisible, malevolent force.
    — Dan Schlossberg, Forbes, 8 Sep. 2024
  • And most don’t require a malevolent dictator to bring them to full fruition.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 3 Jan. 2022
  • Ben goes, pretends to snap some shots, and declares the place free of malevolent spirits.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 26 July 2023
  • These malevolent mechatronics put the power down with a vengeance.
    — Dan Neil, WSJ, 2 Mar. 2023
  • The crew of an interstellar ship battles a malevolent force in this sci-fi thriller.
    — Los Angeles Times, 19 Nov. 2020
  • Oh yeah, Russians are on the platform and have abused it, malevolent actors have abused it.
    — Recode Staff, Recode, 2 May 2018
  • The sound of cockcrow, it was believed, prompted malevolent spirits to fly away.
    — Literary Hub, 23 Apr. 2026
  • All these and many more disasters were enabled by a malevolent form of trust and loyalty.
    — Chris Lowney, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2021
  • In the webtoon, the malevolent spirits were portrayed simply as black shadows.
    — Joan MacDonald, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2025
  • Our intelligence views them as the most aggressive and the malevolent force in the world.
    — Fox News, 21 July 2018
  • As such a name may imply, Lilith’s influence on the world is brutal and malevolent.
    — Boone Ashworth, WIRED, 8 Dec. 2022
  • As Dawn draws closer to the truth, something malevolent grips her and her family.
    — Rick Porter, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Sep. 2022
  • All the same, Reagan’s views of a malevolent Kremlin were well-founded.
    — The Economist, 15 Aug. 2019
  • Pathogens do not rampage like malevolent armies on the march, causing damage in direct relation to the scale and pace of their spread.
    — Time, 3 Feb. 2020
  • Or was the hole man-made with a malevolent intent, perhaps plundering a grave for artifacts?
    — Kenneth R. Gosselin, Hartford Courant, 28 June 2026
  • Along the way are rowdy choir boys, a nosy Sacristan, a wistful shepherd boy, and a gallery of malevolent henchmen.
    — David Patrick Stearns, Philly.com, 13 May 2018
  • When a dark influence begins to grip Todd, Indy must fight a malevolent force.
    — Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 3 Oct. 2025
  • When a dark influence begins to grip Todd, Indy must fight a malevolent force.
    — Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 5 Oct. 2025
  • The man behind the obsessive quest, Ahab, is the malevolent heart of this production.
    — Paul Hodgins, Orange County Register, 29 Jan. 2017
  • The press censor—for so long a malevolent presence in the lives of even the most pacific journalists—was largely set aside.
    — James Robins, The New Republic, 8 Aug. 2023
  • The steely-eyed Will Apicella as Puck is more malevolent than mischievous.
    — Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 18 Sep. 2017
  • At the heart of the play are machinations and scheming, of both the benevolent and malevolent sort, designed to steer or derail the course of love.
    — Don Aucoin, BostonGlobe.com, 28 July 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'malevolent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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