innocuous

adjective in·noc·u·ous \ i-ˈnä-kyə-wəs \

|Updated on: 12 Aug 2018

Examples: innocuous in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Look at the Prefix to Define innocuous

Definition of innocuous

1 : producing no injury : harmless

2 : not likely to give offense or to arouse strong feelings or hostility : inoffensive, insipid

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innocuously

adverb

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innocuousness

noun

See innocuous defined for English-language learners

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Examples of innocuous in a Sentence

Gossip is a relatively innocuous manifestation; fashioning one's self as eternally battling a white America mired in "racism" is a more noisome one. —John McWhorter, Wall Street Journal, 17 Sept. 2003
Small and innocuous looking, the habanero is uncontested as the hottest pepper in the world, the mother of all peppers. —Jim Robbins, Smithsonian, January 1992
And there was LeRoy … a somewhat gruesome but innocuous neighborhood dimwit who gave me the creeps when he sat down on the front stoop to listen to a bunch of us talking after school. —Philip Roth, New York Times Book Review, 18 Oct. 1987
The salamander, an innocuous amphibian like a big newt, was also regarded with a mixture of horror and awe. —David Attenborough, The First Eden, 1987
He told a few innocuous jokes.
those innocuous lies we must tell every day if society is to remain civil

Recent Examples of innocuous from the Web

Privacy - Terms The result was a fun mixture of cultures, with occasional clashes, mostly embarrassments or misunderstandings of eccentricities that seemed innocuous and humorous.

— david g. molyneaux, miamiherald, "Carnival, that most American of cruise lines, won't return to Europe any time soon," 5 July 2018
While the photo is pretty innocuous, only showing the two holding hands, the Internet and Swift's fans had a lot to say about the couple's romantic unveiling.

— natalie maher, Billboard, "Taylor Swift Makes Rare Public Appearance With Boyfriend Joe Alwyn & Fans Can't Contain Their Excitement," 9 Mar. 2018
The most innocuous of attire, the basic yoga pant, has once again come under fire.

— colleen kratofil, PEOPLE.com, "The New York Times Slammed Yoga Pants as 'Bad for Women' - and Women Are Not Here for It," 19 Feb. 2018
He was equally intrigued by other infections that are perfectly survivable or even innocuous for most of us but send some individuals to their grave.

— claudia wallis, Scientific American, "Extreme Flu? Weird Encephalitis? It May Be Your Genes," 13 July 2018
But Jarry counters that his targets aren’t anywhere near innocuous.

— brian barrett, WIRED, "A ‘Cancer Cure’ Video Skewered Bad Science—and Went Viral Itself," 10 July 2018
Fifty years ago, as now, the majority of the country hitmakers were comparatively innocuous.

— bill brownlee, kansascity, "Defiant country artist Nikki Lane coming to Ink's Middle of the Map," 18 June 2018
The boy claimed to be a budding journalist and asked seemingly innocuous questions about the recovery process.

— Anchorage Daily News, "For 'Columbiners,' school shootings have a deadly allure," 30 May 2018
One common strategy straight out of the mugger’s playbook is to catch victims off guard by asking an innocuous question.

— emily sweeney, BostonGlobe.com, "Beware those tricky thieves," 18 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'innocuous.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Look at the Prefix to Define innocuous

Innocuous has harmful roots – it comes to us from the Latin adjective innocuus, which was formed by combining the negative prefix in- with a form of the verb nocēre, meaning "to harm" or "to hurt." In addition, nocēre is related to the truly "harmful" words noxious, nocent, and even nocuous. Innocent is from nocēre as well, although like innocuous it has the in- prefix negating the hurtful possibilities. Innocuous first appeared in print in the early 17th century with the clearly Latin-derived meaning "harmless or causing no injury" (as in "an innocuous gas"). The second sense is a metaphorical extension of the idea of injury, used to indicate that someone or something does not cause hurt feelings, or even strong feelings ("an innocuous book" or "innocuous issues," for example).