harmful

«harmful» in Mova's school dictionary: causing harm: hurting people, animals, plants or things… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (harmful, more harmful, most harmful)

meaning for a pupil

Harmful means causing harm: hurting people, animals, plants or things, or making them ill. tree →

sense in the lessons

In safety and health, harmful things include poisons, cleaning products, smoking, too much sun and some plants and berries; labels say «harmful if swallowed». In science, pollution and plastic are harmful to wildlife and the environment. Online, some websites and messages are harmful, so children should tell an adult. In feelings, harmful words can hurt as much as hitting. Opposite: harmless.

examples

• Bleach is harmful if swallowed. tree →
• Smoking is harmful to your health. tree →
• Plastic in the sea is harmful to turtles. tree →
• Too much sun is harmful to your skin. tree →
• Some berries are harmful, so never eat wild ones. tree →
• Tell an adult if you see something harmful online. tree →
• Rumours can be harmful to people. tree →

note

Spelt with one l: harmful (not «harmfull»). Opposite «harmless» (causing no harm). Say «harmful to» someone. «Harm» is the noun and verb: do harm, harm someone. A label saying «harmful» means keep it away from children.

In the corpora

• Gut bacteria help digest food, make some vitamins and protect against harmful germs.
• Slug pellets can harm hedgehogs and birds, and the most harmful kind was banned in Britain.
• The blue-green veins in blue cheese are a safe mould added on purpose; other moulds on food can be harmful.
• Boiling water kills most germs, but it does not take out salt or harmful chemicals.
• "Substance misuse" is the British official phrase for harmful use of drugs or alcohol.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «harmful» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.