innocuous
adjective
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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).
Synonyms
Examples of innocuous in a Sentence
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
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Nathan Hodge, CNN, 14 Sep. 2023
While Google and Apple’s versions seem rather innocuous, there are other versions in the works from upstarts that are decidedly more focused on the wholesale replication of human relationships.
—Paolo Confino, Fortune, 17 Aug. 2023
Breaking news can spread quickly, as can clips that are funny in an original or strange way—but these innocuous trends feel serendipitous, like a rainbow spanning storm clouds.
—Cal Newport, The New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2023
The centerpiece of the campaign is a video PSA titled Monster, which portrays a seemingly innocuous man, who goes to work and interacts with others in person.
—Liam Quinn, Peoplemag, 12 Sep. 2023
Instead, many of the current concerns revolve around weaponization of the seemingly innocuous inspection satellite.
—Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 5 Sep. 2023
That seemed pretty innocuous compared to the multi-grain crackers that may contain metal, two different kinds of cookies that may contain rocks, and broccoli cheddar soup and cooked falafel that might contain insects.
—Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 4 Sep. 2023
Last month at Big Ten Media Days, reporters asked Day an innocuous question about the Big Ten’s new scheduling model that eliminated divisions and allowed teams to retain their most storied rivalries.
—Jimmy Watkins, cleveland, 31 Aug. 2023
Even seemingly innocuous items like wooden desks or chairs can be riddled with bugs.
—Vivi Smilgius, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Aug. 2023
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'innocuous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Latin innocuus, from in- + nocēre — see innocent entry 1
1631, in the meaning defined at sense 1
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Cite this Entry
“Innocuous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innocuous. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.
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innocuous
adjective
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innocuous
adjective
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