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deleterious
adjective
Did you know?
When you hold down the delete key on your keyboard or touchscreen, the effect—whoosh!—is instantaneous (unless your device is laggy, of course). Deleterious effects, however, are often not so obvious; deleterious is used to describe things that are harmful in ways that are unexpected, slow-acting, or not readily apparent. Although most often used in formal speech and writing, deleterious is far from rare. It even pops up from time to time in film and television, especially from the mouths of wonky characters, as when Seven of Nine warns the Doctor in an episode of Star Trek Voyager, “The nebula is having a deleterious effect on all the ship’s technology,” or when Higgins exclaims in the original Magnum P.I. series, “It’s shocking what a deleterious effect a regimen of nothing but mushrooms can have on a man.” We’ll take your word for it, Higgins.
Synonyms
pernicious, baneful, noxious, deleterious, detrimental mean exceedingly harmful.
pernicious implies irreparable harm done through evil or insidious corrupting or undermining.
baneful implies injury through poisoning or destroying.
noxious applies to what is both offensive and injurious to the health of a body or mind.
deleterious applies to what has an often unsuspected harmful effect.
detrimental implies obvious harmfulness to something specified.
Examples of deleterious in a Sentence
Word History
Greek dēlētērios, from dēleisthai to hurt
1587, in the meaning defined above
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Cite this Entry
“Deleterious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deleterious. Accessed 24 Nov. 2024.
Kids Definition
deleterious
adjectiveMedical Definition
deleterious
adjectiveMore from Merriam-Webster on deleterious
Nglish: Translation of deleterious for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of deleterious for Arabic Speakers
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