Question:
Directions: Choose the correct meaning for each of the foreign language words and phrases given below.
malus
Directions: Choose the correct meaning for each of the foreign language words and phrases given below.
malus
malus
Updated On: Jul 15, 2026
- mass
- harmless
- harmful
- comforting
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The Correct Option is C
Approach Solution - 1
The correct option is (C): harmful.
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Approach Solution -2
"Malus" is a Latin adjective, and its family of related English words gives a strong clue to its meaning. Let's check each option against that word family.
- Option A, "mass": "Mass" is unrelated in sound and meaning to "malus"; it comes from a different Latin root entirely, and has nothing to do with good or bad qualities.
- Option B, "harmless": "Harmless" is close in subject matter, since it is also about harm, but it is the opposite meaning. "Malus" is the root behind English words like "malice," "malignant," and "malevolent," all of which describe something bad or damaging, not something safe.
- Option C, "harmful": "Malus" in Latin means "bad" or "evil." It is the same root seen in "malice" (ill will), "malignant" (harmful, as in a malignant tumor), and "malfunction" (something working badly). "Harmful" captures this "bad, damaging" sense directly.
- Option D, "comforting": "Comforting" describes something soothing or reassuring, the opposite feel of a word rooted in "bad" or "evil." This does not match "malus" at all.
Tracing "malus" through its English descendants like "malice" and "malignant" points clearly to a "bad, damaging" meaning, which matches "harmful" and not its opposite, "harmless," or the unrelated options "mass" and "comforting."
So, the correct answer is harmful.
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Approach Solution -3
A useful real-world anchor for "malus" is the well-known legal pairing "bona fide" and "mala fide," good faith and bad faith, which most people have heard even outside a law classroom. Let's check the options against that pairing.
- Option A, "mass": "Mass" has no connection to the good faith and bad faith pairing at all, and doesn't fit the sense of "malus" that shows up in "mala fide."
- Option B, "harmless": "Bona fide" is the positive half of the pairing, meaning done in good faith, so "mala fide," its opposite, has to mean the negative half, done in bad faith or with bad intent. "Harmless" would put "malus" on the same side as "bonus," which contradicts the pairing.
- Option C, "harmful": Since "mala fide" is the direct opposite of "bona fide," and "bona" means good, "mala," from the same root as "malus," has to carry the opposite sense, bad or harmful.
- Option D, "comforting": A comforting quality would again align "malus" with the positive side of the pairing, which goes against how "mala fide" is actually used to mean bad faith.
Since "mala fide" stands opposite "bona fide" in everyday legal language, and "bona" means good, "malus" has to mean the opposite, harmful, not harmless, comforting, or mass.
So, the correct answer is harmful.
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