Malicious
Malicious adjective - Having or showing a desire to cause someone pain or suffering for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Usage example: the neighborhood chatterbox has again been spreading malicious gossip
Spiteful is a synonym for malicious in malevolent topic. In some cases you can use "Spiteful" instead an adjective "Malicious", when it comes to topics like attitude, hateful, vicious, hostile. popular alternative
Spiteful
Spiteful adjective - Having or showing a desire to cause someone pain or suffering for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Usage example: the gossip would utter the most vicious things with a spiteful smile
Malicious is a synonym for spiteful in attitude topic. You can use "Malicious" instead an adjective "Spiteful", if it concerns topics such as vicious, hostile, hurtful, malevolent. popular alternative
Mutual synonyms
Both words in one sentence
- Instead of the top brass ranging from decent to less-than-competent, the Ghosts' superiors are outright malicious and spiteful, along with an Inquisitor.
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Dark Speech, the secret tongue of evil gods, is so inhumanly spiteful and malicious that it's capable of inspiring instinctive dread in listeners and corroding physical objects; even infernal beings are wary of speaking such words carelessly.
Source: Language Equals Thought -
Friendly Enemy: Death isn't particularly malicious or even spiteful towards Block.
Source: Film / The Seventh Seal
Cite this Source
Spiteful and Malicious. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/malicious/spiteful
Malicious & Spiteful. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/malicious/spiteful>.
Spiteful or Malicious. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/malicious/spiteful.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "malicious" and "spiteful" have occurred on timeline