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pernicious

adjective

Synonyms and Antonyms of pernicious

causing or capable of causing harm
  • She thinks television has a pernicious effect on children.
Synonyms of pernicious

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

hostile, inimical, unfriendly

contagious, deadly, infectious, infective, pestiferous, pestilent, pestilential, poisonous, venomous

insidious, menacing, ominous, sinister, threatening

hazardous, imperiling (or imperilling), jeopardizing, perilous, risky, unsafe, unsound

nasty, noisome, unhealthful, unhealthy, unwholesome

destructive, fatal, killer, lethal, malignant, ruinous
Near Antonyms of pernicious

advantageous, beneficial, useful

favorable, good, propitious

curative, healthful, healthy, helpful, palliative, remedial, salubrious, salutary, wholesome

secure, sound

benignant
Antonyms of pernicious

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

Synonym Discussion of pernicious

pernicious, baneful, noxious, deleterious, detrimental mean exceedingly harmful. pernicious implies irreparable harm done through evil or insidious corrupting or undermining.
    • the claim that pornography has a pernicious effect on society
baneful implies injury through poisoning or destroying.
    • the baneful notion that discipline destroys creativity
noxious applies to what is both offensive and injurious to the health of a body or mind.
    • noxious chemical fumes
deleterious applies to what has an often unsuspected harmful effect.
    • a diet found to have deleterious effects
detrimental implies obvious harmfulness to something specified.
    • the detrimental effects of excessive drinking

Learn More about pernicious

  1. See words that rhyme with pernicious Dictionary: Definition of pernicious Medical Dictionary: Definition of pernicious Spanish Central: Translation of pernicious Nglish: Translation of pernicious for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of pernicious for Arabic speakers

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