Malicious
Malicious adjective - Having or showing a desire to cause someone pain or suffering for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Threatening and malicious are semantically related. In some cases you can use "Threatening" instead an adjective "Malicious".
Threatening
Threatening adjective - Giving signs of immediate occurrence.
Malicious and threatening are semantically related. Sometimes you can use "Malicious" instead an adjective "Threatening".
Mutual synonyms
Related pairs
- offensive and malicious
- offensive and threatening
- baleful and malicious
- baleful and threatening
- baneful and malicious
- baneful and threatening
- sinister and malicious
- sinister and threatening
- savage and malicious
- savage and threatening
- nasty and malicious
- nasty and threatening
- dangerous and malicious
- dangerous and threatening
Both words in one sentence
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Jim and Buck, the bandits from the book version of Pippi in the South Seas are a slightly more malicious and threatening version of this, though Pippi handles them with ease.
Source: Literature / Pippi Longstocking -
Everything about the way he looks, dresses, speaks, walks, and behaves is just strange enough to be simultaneously incredibly creepy and somewhat baffling, but just mundane enough to never be overtly threatening or malicious and to make it clear he isn't doing it on purpose.
Source: Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant -
The rest of the orderlies are much the same—they're depicted as passively malicious and threatening from what we see of them in the hallucinations, but after the lobotomy, they've had enough of Blue and stop him from raping Babydoll.
Source: Film / Sucker Punch
Cite this Source
Threatening and Malicious. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 22, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/malicious/threatening
Malicious & Threatening. N.p., 2016. Web. 22 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/malicious/threatening>.
Threatening or Malicious. 2016. Accessed July 22, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/malicious/threatening.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "malicious" and "threatening" have occurred on timeline