Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Malediction |
MaledictionNoun1. Calling down a curse that invokes evil (and usually serves as an insult); "he suffered the imprecations of the mob". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "malediction" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1671. (references) |
Synonym: MaledictionSynonym: imprecation (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Malediction | Noun: malediction, malison, curse, imprecation, denunciation, execration, anathema, ban, proscription, excommunication, commination, thunders of the Vatican, fulmination, maranatha; aspersion, disparagement, vilification, vituperation. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Malediction |
| English words defined with "malediction": Mal-, Malison ♦ Not worth a curse. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "malediction": trial. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "malediction": Malison. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | TRIAL, n. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors. In order to effect this purpose it is necessary to supply a contrast in the person of one who is called the defendant, the prisoner, or the accused. If the contrast is made sufficiently clear this person is made to undergo such an affliction as will give the virtuous gentlemen a comfortable sense of their immunity, added to that of their worth. In our day the accused is usually a human being, or a socialist, but in mediaeval times, animals, fishes, reptiles and insects were brought to trial. A beast that had taken human life, or practiced sorcery, was duly arrested, tried and, if condemned, put to death by the public executioner. Insects ravaging grain fields, orchards or vineyards were cited to appeal by counsel before a civil tribunal, and after testimony, argument and condemnation, if they continued in contumaciam the matter was taken to a high ecclesiastical court, where they were solemnly excommunicated and anathematized. In a street of Toledo, some pigs that had wickedly run between the viceroy's legs, upsetting him, were arrested on a warrant, tried and punished. In Naples and ass was condemned to be burned at the stake, but the sentence appears not to have been executed. D'Addosio relates from the court records many trials of pigs, bulls, horses, cocks, dogs, goats, etc., greatly, it is believed, to the betterment of their conduct and morals. In 1451 a suit was brought against the leeches infesting some ponds about Berne, and the Bishop of Lausanne, instructed by the faculty of Heidelberg University, directed that some of "the aquatic worms" be brought before the local magistracy. This was done and the leeches, both present and absent, were ordered to leave the places that they had infested within three days on pain of incurring "the malediction of God." In the voluminous records of this cause celebre nothing is found to show whether the offenders braved the punishment, or departed forthwith out of that inhospitable jurisdiction. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Malediction" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Malediction" is used about 4 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 4 | 175,879 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes names derived from the word "malediction". | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Meaning |
| Ardon | N/A | Biblical | A judgment of malediction |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
| |||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
malediction | 11 |
malediction victime | 4 |
malediction stela | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "malediction"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | keqbërje (caper, evildoing, misdeed, misdemeanor, misdemeanour, offence, wrongdoing). (various references) | |
Arabic | لعنة (anathema, ban, curse, cuss, damn, execration, imprecation), قذف (accuse of, aspersion, calumniate, cast, casting, charge with, defamation, defame, discharge, disgorge, ejaculation, eject, ejectment, emit, expel, extrude, extrusion, fling, libel, malign, mud, mudslinging, obloquy, pelt, pelt with, pitch, projection, puke, row, scandal, slander, speak evil of, strike with, striking, throw, throw out, throwing, toss, vilify, vituperate, vomit), تشويه السمعة (calumny, defalcation, denigration, discredit, smearing, vilification). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | проклятие (anathema, bane, curse, cuss, damn, damnation, execration, imprecation, malison, perdition). (various references) | |
Czech | prokletí (bane, curse, damnation, execration, imprecation). (various references) | |
French | malédiction, imprécation. (various references) | |
German | Verwünschung (bewitchment, curse, enchantment, imprecation, oath), Fluch (anathema, ban, bane, blasphemy, curse, cuss, excommunication, expletive, hex, oath, profanity, swearword, vexation). (various references) | |
Greek | κατάρα (anathema, ban, curse, cursedness, execration, imprecation). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מאר" (curse, imprecation), קלל" (calamity, curse, damnation, imprecation, swearword). (various references) | |
Hungarian | átok (anathema, ban, curse, cuss, damn, imprecation, imprecatory, malison), átkozódás (cursing, fulmination, imprecation). (various references) | |
Italian | maledizione (ban, curse, cuss, damn), esecrazione, crimine (crime, felony). (various references) | |
Manx | mollaght (curse, cuss, damn), ard-vollaght (blasphemy, execration). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aledictionmay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | maldição (curse, cuss, damn, malison). (various references) | |
Romanian | blestem (ban, blasphemy, calamity, cancer, curse, damn, damnation, execration, hardship, imprecation, offence, perdition), afurisenie (anathema, curse of the church). (various references) | |
Russian | проклятие (anathema, condemnation, curse, cuss, damn, damnation, imprecation, malison, perdition, tarnation). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | prokletstvo (anathema, damnation, malison, perdition). (various references) | |
Spanish | maldición (ban, curse, dammit, damn, damnation, damnification, damning, malison). (various references) | |
Swedish | förbannelse (anathema, curse, cuss, execration, imprecation, maledictive, maledictory), elakt förtal (scandal). (various references) | |
Turkish | lanetleme (anathema, cursing, damnation, flipping), lanet (bleeding, curse, cuss, damn, damnation, execration, imprecation, imprecatory, malison, murrain, peevish, reprobation, swearword), iftira (aspersion, calumniation, calumny, complaint, defamation, denigration, obloquy, scandal, slander, smear, vilification), beddua (curse, damn, imprecation). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | наклеп (calumniation, calumny, defamation, denigration, libel, mud, mudslinging, slander, slur, smear), прокляття (anathema, ban, bane, curse, cuss, damn, damn it, damnation, darn, execration, imprecation, malison, oath, perdition). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | lời nguyền rủa (damn, imprecation, swear-word), lời chửi rủa (revilement). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "malediction": maledictions. (additional references) | |
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"Malediction" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: maladdiction, maladiction, maledction, Maledetto, maledication, malwdiction, molediction, nalediction. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "malediction" (pronounced 'Mal`e*dic"tion'): Abacination, Abaction, Abalienation, Abarticulation, Abbreviation, Abdication, Abduction, Aberration, Abevacuation, Abirritation, Abjection, Abjudication, Abjuration, Ablactation, Ablaqueation, Ablation, Ablegation, Abligurition, Abnegation, Abnodation, Abolition, Abomination, Abortion, Abreaction, Abrenunciation, Abreption, Abrogation, Abruption, Absentation, Absolution, Absorbition, Absorption, Abstention, Abstraction, Absumption, Accentuation, Acceptation, Acceptilation, Acception, Acclimatation, Acclimation, Acclimatization, Accombination, Accommodation, Accreditation, Accrementition, Accretion, Accubation, Accusation, Acervation. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-d-e-i-i-l-m-n-o-t" | |
-1 letter: decimation, medication. | |
-2 letters: demonical, dictional, dominical, identical, lidocaine, mediation, medicinal, melanitic, melanotic, militance. | |
-3 letters: actinide, actinoid, alcidine, amniotic, anticold, catenoid, ciliated, coinmate, comedian, comitial, conidial, ctenidia, daemonic, daimonic, daltonic, delation, demoniac, diatomic, diatonic, dilation, domicile, dominate, ideation, idiolect, indicate, indocile, iodinate, limacine, limnetic, limonite, maledict, melanoid, melodica, tolidine. | |
-4 letters: aconite, ailment, aliment, aloetic, amidine. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-d-e-i-i-l-m-n-o-t" | |
+1 letter: maledictions. | |
+3 letters: decimalization. | |
+4 letters: decimalizations, omnidirectional, pinealectomized. | |
+5 letters: multidirectional, sedimentological. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Names: Derived from 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
