as in detrimental
causing or capable of causing harm
DDT has been proven to be extremely harmful to the environment
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of harmful
Each ball contained about 1/50th of a gram of radioactive isotopes, enough to register on handheld detectors but (theoretically) not enough to be harmful.
—
Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 28 Oct. 2025
Adoption has exploded since ChatGPT was released three years ago, but so, too, have stories of humans developing harmful relationships with chatbots.
—Allison Morrow, CNN Money, 28 Oct. 2025
Taking more than your body needs may lead to side effects, and in some cases, high doses can be harmful.
—Brianna Tobritzhofer, Health, 28 Oct. 2025
Despite Alice’s best intentions, her blind spots can be glaring and harmful.
—David John Chávez, Mercury News, 28 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for harmful
Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 28 Oct. 2025
Adoption has exploded since ChatGPT was released three years ago, but so, too, have stories of humans developing harmful relationships with chatbots.
—Allison Morrow, CNN Money, 28 Oct. 2025
Taking more than your body needs may lead to side effects, and in some cases, high doses can be harmful.
—Brianna Tobritzhofer, Health, 28 Oct. 2025
Despite Alice’s best intentions, her blind spots can be glaring and harmful.
—David John Chávez, Mercury News, 28 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for harmful
Recent Examples of Synonyms for harmful
Adjective
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What To Know In a video address, Probitkin said UnitedHealthcare has offered solutions that are one-sided and would be detrimental to patients and providers and accused big insurers like UnitedHealthcare of taking advantage of regional and safety net health care providers.—
Lauren Giella,
MSNBC Newsweek,
27 Oct. 2025
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That’s not only unnecessary, but can be detrimental to the plants and the wider ecosystem.—
Erica Browne Grivas,
Better Homes & Gardens,
27 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The former hurricane unleashed catastrophic flooding in Haiti, damaging homes and forcing thousands of people into emergency shelters.—
Thao Nguyen,
USA Today,
31 Oct. 2025
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Following a damaging price war, Beijing’s new five-year plan signaled the government will reduce EV subsidies and instead let the market decide winners and losers in the sector, the China-Global South Project wrote.—
Ben Smith,
semafor.com,
31 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Praneeth Kumar Usiripalli is charged with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm while traveling on an aircraft, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.—
Cindy Von Quednow,
CNN Money,
28 Oct. 2025
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This connection would become increasingly important over the twentieth century, as the rapid development of technological infrastructure created ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous sensitivities to geomagnetic storms.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Working within restricted space, Lanthimos felt the need to go big with the filmmaking, both with supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Johnnie Burn’s sound design and composer Jerskin Fendrix’s music, which is by far the biggest score in the score-adverse director’s career.—
Chris O'Falt,
IndieWire,
31 Oct. 2025
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Such issues include severe weather impacts, adverse road conditions and trash buildups that pose a threat to human and/or wildlife health.—
Michael Salerno,
AZCentral.com,
30 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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FarmVille wasn’t bad, but something was missing.—
Moisés Naím,
Literary Hub,
27 Oct. 2025
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The asteroid impact triggered one of the planet's worst mass-extinction events, wiping out all dinosaurs but birds.—
DINO GRANDONI THE WASHINGTON POST,
Arkansas Online,
26 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Harmful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/harmful. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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