Choose the correct antonym for the word: Malignant
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Benign
Malignant (adjective) means harmful and likely to get worse. In medicine a malignant tumour is a cancerous one that spreads. It can also describe a person who wishes harm to others. Its antonym is benign.
Example: The doctors found that the tumour was malignant.
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| (1) Malaise | a noun meaning a general feeling of illness or unease (it is not an opposite of malignant and is a different part of speech) | A sense of malaise spread through the company after the losses. |
| (2) Toxic | poisonous or harmful (it is close in meaning to malignant, not opposite) | The factory released toxic waste into the river. |
| (3) Rare | not common (it tells how often something occurs, not whether it is harmful) | The tiger is now a rare sight in these forests. |
| (4) Benign (answer) | not harmful (a benign tumour does not spread, and a benign person is kind, so it is the exact opposite of malignant in both senses) | Luckily, the lump turned out to be benign. |
| Synonyms of malignant: harmful, toxic, deadly, malevolent Antonyms of malignant: benign, harmless, kindly, benevolent Also asked in CUET (UG): benign – 14-05-2026 Slot 2, 23-05-2025 Slot 2, 21-05-2025 Slot 2 |