malice aforethought

1. 1.

   (law) criminal intent; the thoughts and intentions behind a wrongful act (including knowledge that the act is illegal); often at issue in murder trials

   Synonymsmens rea

   Broaderplanning

   Narrowerpremeditation

   law

Questions about malice aforethought

What does malice aforethought mean?

malice aforethought means "(law) criminal intent; the thoughts and intentions behind a wrongful act (including knowledge that the act is illegal); often at issue in murder trials".

What is another word for malice aforethought?

Close synonyms include mens rea. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is malice aforethought a common word?

malice aforethought is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.