harm

See also: Harm

English

Etymology

From Middle English harm, herm, from Old English hearm, from Proto-West Germanic *harm, from Proto-Germanic *harmaz (“harm; shame; pain”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /hɑɹm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hɑːm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)m

Noun

harm (countable and uncountable, plural harms)

1. physical injury; hurt; damage

   No harm came to my possessions.

   You can do a lot of harm to someone if you kick them in the balls. Especially if they get revenge and bring out a bazooka and blast your head off.

2. emotional or figurative hurt

   Although not physically injured in the car accident, she received some psychological harm.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 13, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.

3. detriment; misfortune.

   I wish him no harm.

4. That which causes injury, damage, or loss.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:

     We, ignorant of ourselves, / Beg often our own harms.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "harm": bodily, physical, environmental, emotional, financial, serious, irreparable, potential, long-term, short-term, permanent, lasting, material, substantial.

Translations

injury; hurt; damage

• Afar: please add this translation if you can
• Afrikaans: skade (af)
• Albanian: ^{(please verify)} dëm m
• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: ضَرَرٌ‎ (ar) m (ḍararun)
• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: վնաս (hy) (vnas)
• Assamese: please add this translation if you can
• Asturian: dañu m
• Aymara: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: zərər (az)
• Bashkir: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: шко́да f (škóda)
• Bengali: সদমা (śôdma)
• Bikol Central: uragan
• Breton: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: вреда (bg) f (vreda), пакост (bg) f (pakost)
• Catalan: dany (ca) m
• Chamorro: please add this translation if you can
• Cherokee: please add this translation if you can
• Chichewa: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 損害 (zh), 损害 (zh) (sǔnhài)

• Corsican: please add this translation if you can
• Czech: poškození (cs) n
• Danish: skade (da)
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: schade (nl) m
• Esperanto: damaĝo
• Estonian: ^{(please verify)} kahju (et)
• Ewe: please add this translation if you can
• Extremaduran: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: skaði
• Finnish: vahinko (fi)
• French: mal (fr) m, tort (fr) m, dommage (fr) m
• Friulian: please add this translation if you can
• Galician: dano m
• Georgian: ზიანი (ziani), ზარალი (zarali), ვნება (vneba)
• German: Schaden (de) m
• Greek: βλάβη (el) f (vlávi)
• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hausa: please add this translation if you can
• Hawaiian: māino, pōpilikia
• Hebrew: נזק‎ (he) m (nézek)
• Hindi: ^{(please verify)} नुक़सान m (nuqsān), ^{(please verify)} हानि (hi) f (hāni)
• Ido: domajo (io), nocuro (io)
• Igbo: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
• Interlingua: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: dochar m, díobháil f, anachain (ga) f, urchóid f
• Italian: danno (it) m, male (it) m, ferita (it) f
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 損害 (ja) (そんがい, songai)
• Javanese: please add this translation if you can
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: залал (kk) (zalal), зиян (kk) (zïyan), зарар (zarar)
• Khmer: ^{(please verify)} អំពើអាក្រក់ (ʼɑmpəəʼaakrŭək)

• Korean: 해 (ko) (hae)
• Latin: noxa f, noxia f
• Latvian: bojājums m, ievainojums m, kaitējums m
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Luganda: please add this translation if you can
• Luxembourgish: Schued m
• Macedonian: штета (šteta)
• Malay: mudarat, keburukan
• Malayalam: ഉപദ്രവം (ml) (upadravaṃ)
• Marathi: ईजा (ījā)
• Mirandese: ^{(please verify)} danho m
• Occitan: dam m
• Old English: hearm, (poetic) bealo m
• Old Saxon: ^{(please verify)} harm
• Oriya: please add this translation if you can
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: آسیب‎ (fa) (âsib)
• Polish: szkoda (pl) f, krzywda (pl) f
• Portuguese: dano (pt) m, mal (pt) m
• Punjabi: please add this translation if you can
• Rajasthani: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} pagubă (ro) f, ^{(please verify)} daună (ro) f, ^{(please verify)} prejudiciu (ro) n; ^{(please verify)} rău (ro) n, ^{(please verify)} nedreptate (ro) f
• Russian: вред (ru) m (vred), уще́рб (ru) m (uščérb), поврежде́ние (ru) n (povreždénije)
• Samoan: please add this translation if you can
• Sanskrit: द्रुह् (sa) f (druh)
• Sardinian: please add this translation if you can
• Scots: skaith
• Scottish Gaelic: ^{(please verify)} aimhleas m, ^{(please verify)} baoghal m, ^{(please verify)} coire m, ^{(please verify)} ciùrradh m, ^{(please verify)} cron m, ^{(please verify)} olc m, ^{(please verify)} milleadh m, ^{(please verify)} dochann m, ^{(please verify)} coire f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: повреда f; штета f

  Roman: povreda (sh) f; šteta (sh) f

• Sicilian: firita f
• Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
• Sinhalese: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: poškodenie n
• Spanish: daño (es) m
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} హాని (te) (hāni)
• Tocharian B: karep
• Turkish: zarar (tr), hasar (tr), ziyan (tr), incinme (tr)
• Ukrainian: шко́да (uk) f (škóda)
• Urdu: ^{(please verify)} نقصان‎ m (nuqsān)
• Uyghur: please add this translation if you can
• Venetian: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: please add this translation if you can
• Wolof: please add this translation if you can
• Xhosa: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: please add this translation if you can
• Yoruba: please add this translation if you can
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

that which causes injury, damage, or loss

• Bikol Central: uragan
• Bulgarian: зло (bg) n (zlo)
• Catalan: mal (ca) m

• Finnish: vahinko (fi), haitta (fi)
• Italian: danno (it) m, svantaggio (it)
• Portuguese: mal (pt) m

Verb

harm (third-person singular simple present harms, present participle harming, simple past and past participle harmed)

1. To cause injury to another; to hurt; to cause damage to something.
   • 2020 December 16, Yan Ming, “Awakening Moral Conscience”, in Minghui‎^[1]:

     Will justice and conscience of society not be harmed if people avoid the truth?

Translations

cause damage

• Afrikaans: beskadig
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can

  Egyptian Arabic: ضر‎ (ḍarr)

• Armenian: վնասել (hy) (vnasel)
• Bulgarian: увреждам (bg) (uvreždam)
• Cherokee: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 損害 (zh), 损害 (zh) (sǔnhài)

• Danish: skade (da)
• Dutch: schaden (nl), beschadigen (nl)
• Esperanto: damaĝi
• Faroese: skaða
• Finnish: vahingoittaa (fi)
• French: nuire à, faire du mal à
• German: schaden (de)

  Alemannic German: schade

• Greek: βλάπτω (el) (vlápto)

  Ancient: βλάπτω (bláptō)

• Hebrew: הזיק‎ (he) (hizík)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: árt (hu)
• Icelandic: please add this translation if you can
• Ido: domajar (io)
• Irish: déan dochar do, déan díobháil do
• Italian: danneggiare (it), ferire (it), far male
• Japanese: 害する (gai-suru), そこなう (ja) (sokonau), 痛める (ja) (ita-meru)

• Khmer: បង្ករអន្តរាយ (bângkârôʼntâréay)
• Korean: 해치다 (ko) (haechida)
• Latin: noceō (la) m
• Latvian: kaitēt, bojāt
• Maore Comorian: uhodza
• Maori: whakatūroro (to a person), whakahauā, whakakino
• Ngazidja Comorian: udhuru
• Polish: krzywdzić (pl), uszkadzać (pl) impf (mainly for inanimate)
• Portuguese: ferir (pt), fazer mal, afligir (pt), machucar (pt)
• Romanian: vătăma (ro), strica (ro), dăuna (ro)
• Russian: вреди́ть (ru) impf (vredítʹ), повреди́ть (ru) pf (povredítʹ), навреди́ть (ru) pf (navredítʹ)
• Sanskrit: द्रुह्यति (sa) (druhyati), हिनस्ति (sa) (hinasti)
• Scottish Gaelic: mill, cuir cron air
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: оштетити, повредити / повриједити, шкодити

  Roman: oštetiti (sh), povrediti (sh) / povrijediti (sh), škoditi (sh)

• Slovak: raniť, škodiť
• Slovene: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: dañar (es)
• Swedish: skada (sv)
• Telugu: హాని (te) (hāni)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: шко́дити impf (škódyty)
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: please add this translation if you can

Derived terms

Terms derived from the noun or verb harm

• do no harm
• harmer
• harmless

• harm's way
• self-harm
• unharmed

Anagrams

• Hmar, mahr

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Icelandic

Noun

harm

1. indefinite accusative singular of harmur

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Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhaɾˠəmˠ/

Noun

harm

1. h-prothesized form of arm

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• harem, arme, herme

Etymology

From Old English hearm, from Proto-West Germanic *harm.

Noun

harm (plural harms)

1. harm, injury, ruination

Descendants

• English: harm
• Scots: herm, hairm
• Yola: harrm

References

• “harm, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

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Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *harmaz.

Noun

harm m

1. harm

Descendants

• Middle Low German: harm, herm