harmful
adjUK /ˈhɑːmfl̩/ · US /ˈhɑɹmfl̩/
Etymology From Middle English harmful, from Old English *hearmful (suggested by hearmfullīċ (“harmful; hurtful”)), equivalent to harm + -ful. Cognate with German harmvoll, Danish harmfuld, Swedish harmfull.
1
Causing or likely to cause harm or damage; injurious.
- Wear a hat to protect your skin from harmful sunlight.
- Smoking is harmful to the lungs.
1 more example
- Burning fossil fuels is harmful to the environment.
- Synonyms
- injurious, harmful, damaging, deleterious, detrimental, hurtful, inimical, mischievous, nocent, nocuous, noxious, noisome, prejudicial, scathand, scathel, sullen, venom
- Antonyms
- beneficial, harmless, helpful, valuable, innocent, innocuous, innoxious, inoffensive, undamaging, unharmful
- Derived terms
- harmfully, harmfulness, nonharmful, unharmful
- Related terms
- harm, disastrous
- Hyponyms
- baneful, pernicious, malignant, insalubrious, unhealthful, unhealthy, unwholesome, poisonous, toxic, lethal, deadly