hurtful

«hurtful» in Mova's school dictionary: Making someone feel upset or sad, usually because of… — 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 (hurtful; more hurtful, most hurtful)

meaning for a pupil

Making someone feel upset or sad, usually because of unkind words or actions. tree →

sense in the lessons

In PSHE and anti-bullying lessons it describes words and actions that hurt feelings, not bodies: «hurtful comments», «hurtful names», «hurtful jokes». Lessons teach that teasing can become hurtful and that you should say sorry if you were hurtful.

examples

• Calling someone names is hurtful. tree →
• Her hurtful words made him cry. tree →
• That joke was funny to you, but hurtful to me. tree →
• Think before you post hurtful comments online. tree →
• It was hurtful when they did not invite me. tree →
• He said sorry for being so hurtful. tree →

note

«Hurtful» is used for words and actions that hurt feelings; for physical pain use «painful» or «sore». «-ful» means «full of / causing». Only one «l» at the end: hurtful.

In the corpora

• Family feuds often start over money, a will or hurtful words, and they can last for years.
• Bots can be tricked into saying hurtful things, so you notice tricks, politely refuse and stay kind.
• Finding something true and kind to say is better than both a hurtful truth and a big lie.
• «Just joking» does not make a hurtful remark okay; you can say «That wasn't funny to me».
• Saying someone can't be or do something because of their skin colour is wrong and hurtful.

Trees and pragmatics

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