detrimental

¹det·ri·men·tal

adjective \ˌde-trə-ˈmen-t^əl\

Definition of DETRIMENTAL

: obviously harmful : damaging <the detrimental effects of pollution>

— det·ri·men·tal·ly \-t^əl-ē\ adverb

Examples of DETRIMENTAL

1. <there were serious concerns that the factory's waste was detrimental to the local environment>
2. In context, the word “corruption” summarized the opinion (set forth in some of the books mentioned in the review) that, as a general matter, the growing financial dependence of the medical profession on the pharmaceutical industry is profoundly detrimental to sound public, medical, and scientific policy. —New York Review of Books, 12 Feb. 2009
3. Healthy people can harbor Klebsiella to no detrimental effect; those with debilitating conditions, like liver disease or severe diabetes, or those recovering from major surgery, are most likely to fall ill. —Jerome Groopman, New Yorker, 11 & 18 Aug. 2008
4. Unfortunately, tourism, along with dynamite fishing and poaching, has proved detrimental to the park's coral reefs, mangrove complexes, coastal wetlands and marine species. —Nature Conservancy Landmarks, Fall 2003

Origin of DETRIMENTAL

(see detriment)

First Known Use: 1590

Related to DETRIMENTAL

Synonyms

adverse, bad, baleful, baneful, damaging, dangerous, deleterious, harmful, evil, hurtful, ill, injurious, mischievous, nocuous, noxious, pernicious, prejudicial, wicked

Antonyms

anodyne, benign, harmless, hurtless, innocent, innocuous, inoffensive, safe

Related Words

hostile, inimical, unfriendly; contagious, deadly, infectious, infective, pestiferous, pestilent, pestilential, poisonous, venomous; insidious, menacing, ominous, sinister, threatening; hazardous, imperiling (or imperilling), jeopardizing, parlous, perilous, risky, unsafe, unsound; nasty, noisome, unhealthful, unhealthy, unwholesome; destructive, fatal, killer, lethal, malignant, ruinous

Near Antonyms

advantageous, beneficial, useful; favorable, good, propitious; curative, healthful, healthy, helpful, palliative, remedial, salubrious, salutary, wholesome; secure, sound; benignant; noncorrosive, nondestructive, nonfatal, noninfectious, nonlethal, nonpoisonous, nonpolluting, nontoxic, nonvenomous

See Synonym Discussion at pernicious

Rhymes with DETRIMENTAL

accidental, adjustmental, apartmental, biparental, compartmental, complemental, condimental, continental, departmental, documental, excremental, elemental, firmamental, fundamental, governmental, grandparental, incidental, incremental, instrumental, managemental, monumental, nonjudgmental, occidental, oriental, ornamental, regimental, rudimental, sacramental, sentimental, supplemental, temperamental, transcendental

²det·ri·men·tal

noun \ˌde-trə-ˈmen-t^əl\

Definition of DETRIMENTAL

: an undesirable or harmful person or thing

Origin of DETRIMENTAL

(see ¹detrimental)

First Known Use: 1831

Rhymes with DETRIMENTAL

accidental, continental, elemental, fundamental, incidental, instrumental, ornamental, sacramental, supplemental