PERNICIOUS


Meaning of PERNICIOUS in English

per ‧ ni ‧ cious /pəˈnɪʃəs $ pər-/ BrE AmE adjective formal

[ Date: 1500-1600 ; Language: French ; Origin: pernicieux , from Latin perniciosus , from pernicies 'destruction' , from nex 'violent death' ]

very harmful or evil, often in a way that you do not notice easily:

the pernicious effects of poverty

the media’s pernicious influence

—perniciously adverb

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THESAURUS

▪ harmful causing physical harm – used especially about things that cause harm to your health, the environment etc:

Smoking is harmful to your health.

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drugs with harmful side-effects

▪ be bad for somebody/something to have a harmful effect on someone or something. This phrase is very commonly used in everyday English when saying that something is harmful:

Everyone knows that too much alcohol is bad for you.

▪ damaging used about things that cause permanent physical harm, or that have a bad effect in other ways, for example on people’s opinion of someone:

Acid rain has a damaging effect on trees and the soil.

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The allegations were very damaging to his career.

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Constant criticism is damaging to a child’s self-esteem.

▪ detrimental formal causing harm or having a bad effect on something:

Employers are worried that the new laws will have a detrimental effect on their business.

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chemicals that are detrimental to the environment

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policies that have been detrimental to the interests of old people

▪ negative a negative effect is one that is bad and causes problems:

The car tax had a negative effect on car sales.

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the negative impact of the recession in the US

▪ hazardous hazardous substances are likely to be dangerous to people’s health and safety:

Hazardous waste needs to be disposed of safely.

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hazardous chemicals

▪ toxic toxic substances, smoke etc are poisonous:

toxic waste

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toxic fumes

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Toxic chemicals spilled into the river.

▪ pernicious /pəˈnɪʃəs $ pər-/ formal used about something that has a gradual bad effect which is not easy to notice, especially on people’s morals, or on their health:

the pernicious effects of violent video games

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the pernicious effect of secondhand smoke

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.