harm
part of speech
noun (harm — uncountable); verb (harm, harms, harmed, harming)
meaning for a pupil
1) Hurt, damage or injury to a person, animal or thing. tree →
2) Verb: to hurt or damage someone or something. tree →
3) No harm in: it is not wrong or dangerous: «There's no harm in asking». tree →
sense in the lessons
In safety and kindness lessons: do no harm — don't hurt people, animals or the environment; some substances (bleach, medicine) can harm you; too much sun harms skin; pollution harms wildlife. In stories: a villain wants to harm someone; a hero keeps them from harm. Phrases: do harm, cause harm, come to no harm, out of harm's way, no harm done, there's no harm in, harmful, harmless.
examples
- Smoking harms your lungs. tree →
- The dog won't harm you. tree →
- Litter can harm wild animals. tree →
- Keep cleaning products out of harm's way. tree →
- There's no harm in asking for help. tree →
- No harm done — it was just a spilled drink. tree →
- The lost kitten came to no harm. tree →
- Too much sugar can harm your teeth. tree →
- They had done me no harm. tree →
note
Uncountable noun: «a lot of harm», never «a harm». Adjectives: harmful (causes harm), harmless (causes no harm). Regular verb: harmed. «Harmless» does not mean you should touch it — many harmless-looking things (berries, animals) can still hurt you.
In the corpora
- Fakes can spread faster than they can be removed; reporting them helps and sharing them harms.
- It was reported that AI-made books were sold online under real authors' names, harming authors and readers.
- Goldfish must never be let go in the wild, where they can grow huge and harm native fish.
- Pets let go can die or become pests that harm wild animals, and rescue centres and pet shops can take unwanted pets back.
- Slug pellets can harm hedgehogs and birds, and the most harmful kind was banned in Britain.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «harm» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.