hurtful
adjective
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Definition of hurtful
: causing injury, detriment, or suffering : damaging
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Other Words from hurtful
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adverb
Synonyms & Antonyms for hurtful
Synonyms
adverse, bad, baleful, baneful, damaging, dangerous, deleterious, detrimental, evil, harmful, ill, injurious, mischievous, nocuous, noxious, pernicious, prejudicial, wicked
Antonyms
benign, harmless, hurtless, innocent, innocuous, inoffensive, safe
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Examples of hurtful in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Several people told Friedland how inappropriate and hurtful his use of the word was. — Candice Choi, chicagotribune.com, "Papa John is gone, but his image is still entwined with pizza chain," 12 July 2018 Well said Ireland Baldwin, daughter of Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger and subject of the former's infamous voicemail rant, penned a touching letter about acceptance and the hurtful affects of anonymous Internet comments on her Tumblr. — Lauren Le Vine, Redbook, "Morning Headlines: Secrets of Highly Productive Lunchers, Crowd-Funded Babies — and More," 1 May 2013 Americans of a certain age have trouble believing that colleges and universities have rules banning supposedly hurtful speech. — Michael Barone, National Review, "What’s Oozing Out of Campuses Is Polluting Society," 16 Feb. 2018 So when an online bully wrote hurtful words about their baby, Helen, Erin took matters into her own hands. — Taysha Murtaugh, Country Living, "Erin Napier of HGTV's 'Home Town' Shut Down a Cruel Comment About Her Baby in the Best Way," 11 July 2018 However, his sudden and blatant favoritism toward others within our small team is extremely hurtful. — Amy Dickinson, chicagotribune.com, "Loss of work friendship grieves colleague," 22 May 2018 The pointing was now accompanied by hurtful laughter and taunting. — Britney Young, Glamour, "Before GLOW, There Was Never a Character Who Truly Felt Like Me," 29 June 2018 The current allegations sent to me by the New York Times and Los Angeles Times range from the patently untrue to the frivolous and hurtful. — Melody Chiu, PEOPLE.com, "17 Women Accuse Music Producer Russell Simmons of Sexual Misconduct — Everything They've Said," 28 June 2018 The comment doesn't reflect our agency values and is disturbing and hurtful. — Chris Irvine, Fox News, "Oregon DOT employee suspended after Facebook post calling on immigrants to be shot," 22 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hurtful.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for hurtful
hurtful
adjective
English Language Learners Definition of hurtful
: causing injury or emotional pain; especially : cruel or unkind
See the full definition for hurtful in the English Language Learners Dictionary
hurtful
adjective
\
Kids Definition of hurtful
: causing injury or suffering hurtful gossip
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