Simple meaning
What does Harmful mean?
Harmful means causing hurt or damage.
Dictionary definition
Causing damage, injury, or negative effects to people, animals, or things.
Example sentences
Harmful in a sentence
easy
Smoke can be harmful to your lungs.
medium
Unkind words can be harmful to friendships.
hard
Harmful habits are easier to change with support and planning.
Synonyms
Words like Harmful
damagingUse when something causes physical or emotional harm.
dangerousUse when risk of harm is high.
Antonyms
Opposite words
Word family
Harmful word family
Base word
harmful
noun
harm
Damage or injury caused to someone or something.
Related words
Explore related words
Quick practice
Try Harmful
Practice 1
What does harmful mean?
Harmful things create negative effects or injury.
Practice this skill
Practice vocabulary in WordHive
Use the dictionary to understand Harmful, then move into short activities matched to the skills on this page.
Learning paths
- Define the Word Hive for word meanings.
- Synonym Search for word choice.
- Context Clue Challenge for sentence clues.
- Buzz Between for homophones and listening.
- Hive Builder for roots, prefixes, and suffixes.