malicious intent
Desire to harm
Malicious intent is the deliberate desire to cause harm, damage, or injury.
The phrase appears frequently in legal contexts, where establishing malicious intent—as opposed to negligence or accident—often determines the severity of charges or liability: The prosecution must prove malicious intent to secure a conviction.
Outside law, it describes any purposeful ill will: She suspected malicious intent behind his seemingly innocent questions.
- harassmentAggressive, unwanted targeting
- mens reaBlameworthy mental state
- sabotageDeliberate disruption of operations
- bullyingAggressive repeated intimidation
- hatredIntense hostile aversion
deception · cruelty · premeditation · spite · bad faith · bad intentions · willful misconduct · criminality · exploitation · fraudulence · coercion · malfeasance · animus · culpability · foul play · sadism · malevolence · vengeful
- arsonarson, arsonist, arson investigator, arson investigation, attempted arson
- maliceill will, spite, malevolence, malignity, venom
- defamationslander, libel, defamation, defamatory statement, defaming
malicious intentaccident
Unintended harmful event
negligence · carelessness · inadvertence · unintentional harm · oversight
malicious intentgood will
Benevolent intent toward others
pure heart · pure motives · clean conscience · moral purpose · bona fides