Malediction

//ˌmæl.əˈdɪk.ʃən// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A curse. countable, uncountable

    "[H]is friend, with great ebullience of paſſion, many praiſes of his own good play, and many maledictions on the power of chance, took up the cards, and threw them into the fire."

  2. 2
    the act of calling down a curse that invokes evil (and usually serves as an insult) wordnet
  3. 3
    Evil speech. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
curseimprecationabuseanathemabanblasphemy

Example

More examples

"[H]is friend, with great ebullience of paſſion, many praiſes of his own good play, and many maledictions on the power of chance, took up the cards, and threw them into the fire."

Etymology

From late Middle English malediccion, from Middle French malédiction, from Latin maledictiō (“curse”) from malus (“evil”) + dictiō (“speech”) noun of action from perfect passive participle dictus (“spoken”), from verb dīcō (“speak”).

More for "malediction"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.