Harmful

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈhɑːmfl̩/

Definitions

1. Causing or likely to cause damage, injury, or negative effects to health, well-being, or the environment
2. Producing adverse effects, injury, or damage to health, emotional state, or living organisms is considered detrimental in nature
3. Inducing physical harm, psychological distress, or adverse environmental impact is recognized as being injurious

Etymology: "Harmful" is a plain compound: "harm" plus the suffix "-ful," which turns a noun into an adjective meaning "full of" or "having a quality of," as in "hopeful" or "careful." Its ancestry runs back to Old English, where "hearm" meant injury, and the word that became "harmful" was built from that same stem, likely in the form "hearmful," which is inferred from a related Old English adjective, "hearmfullīċ," meaning "harmful; hurtful." The word passed into Middle English as "harmful," keeping the same structure it still has. Closely related forms appear across the Germanic languages, including German "harmvoll," Danish "harmfuld," and Swedish "harmfull," all built the same way from a native root for harm and the "full" suffix.

Synonyms: detrimental, injurious, damaging, toxic, dangerous

Antonyms: beneficial, helpful, harmless, advantageous, safe