Harmful

How to spell harmful

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce harmful

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does harmful mean?

1. adjectiveCausing or capable of causing damage, injury, or harm.

Harmful in a sentence

• Too much screen time can be harmful to young children.

• The report warned that the chemical is harmful if inhaled.

Where does harmful come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word harmful is built from the native English noun harm joined to the common suffix -ful, meaning 'full of' or 'tending to cause'. The root harm comes from Old English hearm, which meant injury, hurt, or grief, and it has close cousins across the Germanic languages, including Old Norse harmr and Old High German harm, all carrying the sense of pain or sorrow. The suffix -ful is simply the word 'full' worn down over centuries into a word-forming ending, so harmful literally describes something 'full of harm'. The combined adjective appears in English from around the fourteenth century and has kept a steady meaning ever since: causing or capable of causing damage. Because -ful adds only a single l (unlike the standalone word 'full'), the spelling trap is resisting the urge to write 'harmfull'.

How the word is built

• harm (injury, damage)
• -ful (full of, characterised by)