Injure

How to spell injure

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce injure

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does injure mean?

1. verbTo cause physical harm or damage to a person, animal, or part of the body.

Injure in a sentence

• Lifting the heavy boxes without help can injure your back.

• The coach warned the players not to injure themselves during the warm-up.

Where does injure come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin injuria, which meant 'a wrong', 'an injustice', or 'an insult'. That noun was built from in-, meaning 'not', joined to jus (genitive juris), meaning 'right' or 'law', so the literal idea was something done against what is lawful or right. English took it in through Old French injurie during the late Middle Ages, at first as a noun describing a wrong or affront, and the verb injure grew out of it to mean inflicting harm or damage. The very same juris root sits inside everyday legal words such as jury, justice, and jurisdiction, all of which deal with law and right. Knowing the root is jur, not 'jer', helps explain why the spelling keeps the j-u-r and finishes with the quiet -ure rather than the -er an ear might expect.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• jur (right, law; from Latin jus, juris)
• -e (verb ending)