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benign

Syllabification: (be·nign)
Pronunciation: /biˈnīn/
Translate benign | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of benign

adjective

  • 1gentle; kindly:her face was calm and benign his benign but firm manner
  • (of a climate or environment) mild and favorable.
  • not harmful to the environment: [in combination]:an ozone-benign refrigerant
  • 2 Medicine (of a disease) not harmful in effect: in particular, (of a tumor) not malignant.

Derivatives

benignly

adverb

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French benigne, from Latin benignus, probably from bene 'well' + -genus '-born'. Compare with gentle1

The ending of benign is spelled -ign.

benign in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of benign in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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