harmful
UK /ˈhɑːmfl̩/ · US /ˈhɑɹmfl̩/ adjective
Forms harmfuller harmfullest harmfull
- adjective Causing or likely to cause harm or damage; injurious. “Wear a hat to protect your skin from harmful sunlight.”
Synonyms
injurious 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
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.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “harmful”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details