What it means
The beginning of words for something that goes wrong. Malnutrition is poor nutrition, malabsorption is poor uptake of nutrients from the gut, malaise is a general feeling of being unwell, malpractice is bad professional practice and a malignant tumor is one that invades and spreads.
Remember it
"Mal" sounds like "bad" in French and Spanish (mal).
Related terms
dys-
A word beginning that means difficult, painful or not working normally.
malignant hyperthermia
A rare inherited reaction to certain general anesthesia drugs in which the muscles' metabolism speeds up out of control.