harmful

English

Alternative forms

• harmfull (archaic)

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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːmfl̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹmfl̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

harmful (comparative harmfuller or more harmful, superlative harmfullest or most harmful)

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.

   Burning fossil fuels is harmful to the environment.

Synonyms

• injurious; see also Thesaurus:harmful

Antonyms

• beneficial
• harmless

Derived terms

• harmfully
• harmfulness
• nonharmful
• unharmful

Collocations

with nouns

• harmful effect
• harmful consequence
• harmful impact
• harmful influence
• harmful emission
• harmful chemical
• harmful ingredient
• harmful substance
• harmful gas
• harmful agent
• harmful additive
• harmful drug
• harmful radiation
• harmful dust
• harmful organism
• harmful plant
• harmful animal
• harmful insect
• harmful action
• harmful act
• harmful behavior
• harmful component
• harmful content
• harmful activity
• harmful interference
• harmful use

Translations

likely to be damaging

• Arabic: ضَارّ (ḍārr), مُضِرّ (muḍirr)
• Armenian: վնասակար (hy) (vnasakar), վնասաբեր (hy) (vnasaber)
• Asturian: dañible (ast), malín (ast), nocivu (ast)
• Azerbaijani: zərərli, ziyankar
• Belarusian: шко́дны (škódny), шкоднасны (škódnasny), шкадлі́вы (škadlívy)
• Bengali: ক্ষতিকর (bn) (khotikor), ক্ষতিকারক (bn) (khotikarok)
• Bulgarian: вреден (bg) (vreden), пакостен (bg) (pakosten)
• Catalan: nociu (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 有害 (zh) (yǒuhài), 不良 (zh) (bùliáng)

• Czech: škodlivý (cs)
• Danish: skadelig (da)
• Dutch: schadelijk (nl)
• Finnish: vahingollinen (fi), haitallinen (fi)
• French: dangereux (fr), nuisible (fr), nocif (fr), préjudiciable (fr)
• Galician: perxudicial
• Georgian: საზიანო (saziano), მავნე (mavne)
• German: schädlich (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: βλαπτικός (blaptikós), δηλητήριος (dēlētḗrios)

• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: káros (hu), kártékony (hu)
• Icelandic: skaðlegur (is)
• Indonesian: berbahaya (id)
• Ingrian: vrednoi
• Irish: aimhleasach, biniúil, damáisteach, díobhálach, dochrach, éigineáil, mímhaitheasach, olc, olcach, urchóideach
• Italian: dannoso (it), nocivo (it)
• Japanese: 有害な (ja) (ゆうがいな, yūgai-na)
• Javanese: mbebayani
• Korean: 해로운 (haeroun), 유해한 (yuhaehan)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: ziyanbexş (ku)

• Latin: nocuus, noxius
• Macedonian: штетен (šteten)
• Malay: berbahaya
• Maori: whakakino, whakawhara
• Norman: niêsibl'ye (Jersey)
• Norwegian: skadelig (no)
• Persian: مضر (fa)
• Plautdietsch: schätlich
• Polish: szkodliwy (pl)
• Portuguese: prejudicial (pt), nocivo (pt), danoso (pt), daninho (pt)
• Romanian: nociv (ro), prejudiciabil (ro), dăunător (ro), vătămător (ro), păgubitor (ro), stricător (ro)
• Russian: вре́дный (ru) (vrédnyj), вредоно́сный (ru) (vredonósnyj), зловре́дный (ru) (zlovrédnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: шко̀дљив, шко̏дан, ште̏тан

  Roman: škòdljiv (sh), škȍdan (sh), štȅtan (sh)

• Slovak: škodlivý (sk)
• Slovene: škodljiv
• Spanish: perjudicial (es), dañino (es), nocivo (es), dañoso (es)
• Swedish: skadlig (sv)
• Tagalog: mapaminsala, nakapipinsala, nakasisira, nakasasama
• Telugu: హానికరమైన (te) (hānikaramaina)
• Turkish: zararlı (tr)
• Turkmen: zyýanly (tk)
• Ukrainian: шкідли́вий (škidlývyj), вадли́вий (uk) (vadlývyj)
• Urdu: مضر

See also

• harm