different between malignancy vs pestilence

English

Etymology

malignant +? -cy or malign +? -ancy

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m??l??.n?n.si/

Noun

malignancy (countable and uncountable, plural malignancies)

1. The state of being malignant or diseased.
2. A malignant cancer; specifically, any neoplasm that is invasive or otherwise not benign.
3. That which is malign; evil, depravity, malevolence.

Synonyms

• malignance
• malignity

Antonyms

• benignancy
• benignity

Derived terms

• nonmalignancy
• premalignancy
• pseudomalignancy

Related terms

• malign
• malignly
• malignment

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pestilentia (“plague”), from pestilens (“infected, unwholesome, noxious”); see pestilent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?st?l?n(t)s/, /?p?st?l?n(t)s/, /?p?stl?n(t)s/

Noun

pestilence (countable and uncountable, plural pestilences)

1. Any epidemic disease that is highly contagious, infectious, virulent and devastating.
   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 2

     "Take it, Christian dogs? take the palaces, the gardens, the mosques, the abode of our fathers - take plague with them; pestilence is the enemy we fly; if she be your friend, hug her to your bosoms. The curse of Allah is on Stamboul, share ye her fate?"

   • 1949 - Bruce Kiskaddon, George R. Stewart, Earth Abides

     The snowshoe-rabbits build up through the years until they reach a climax when they seem to be everywhere; then with dramatic suddenness their pestilence falls upon them.

2. (archaic) Anything harmful to morals or public order.

Related terms

• pest
• pesticide
• pestilent

Translations

Further reading

• pestilence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pestilence in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Old French pestilence, borrowed from Latin pestilentia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?s.ti.l??s/

Noun

pestilence f (plural pestilences)

1. (archaic or literary) pest epidemic; pestilence
2. extremely foul smell

   Synonyms: infection, puanteur

Derived terms

• pestilentiel

References

• “pestilence” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Noun

pestilence f (oblique plural pestilences, nominative singular pestilence, nominative plural pestilences)

1. pestilence (epidemic disease)