Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having a harmful effect; injurious: the deleterious effects of smoking.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having the quality of destroying life; noxious; poisonous: as, a deleterious plant.
- Hurtful in character or quality; injurious; pernicious; mischievous; unwholesome: as, a deleterious practice; deleterious food.
Wiktionary
- adj. harmful often in a subtle or unexpected way (as for example deleterious effects, deleterious to health).
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Hurtful; noxious; destructive; pernicious.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. harmful to living things
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek δηλητήριος (dēlētērios, "noxious, deleterious"), from δηλητήρ (dēlētēr, "a destroyer"), from δηλέομαι (dēleomai, "I hurt, damage, spoil, waste"). (Wiktionary)
- From Greek dēlētērios, from dēlētēr, destroyer, from dēleisthai, to harm. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Having publicly deprecated the impact of fiscal policy and warned of the long term deleterious effects of climbing public debt, of course, the Federal Reserve and/or the Bank of England cannot now reverse course and credibly back more fiscal stimulus.”
The Huffington Post: Marshall Auerback: Welcome to the World of the "New Normal," UK Style
“And there are plenty of studies that show that punishment has long-term deleterious effects on children, whereas ....”
“But unfortunately, we've had a cycle of this and it doesn't stop the real problem, and that is simply that the Mexican government has a policy of avoiding domestic reform by exporting human capital at the rate of one or two million illegals a year, and it's in the long term deleterious for Mexico, because they don't face up to the problems they have for providing security and prosperity for their own people.”
“While much of this is understandable, there needs to be some stepping back so that there are no long-term deleterious results from this contretemps.”
“Set in 1974's Central America, in a war-weary time at the tail end of the Vietnam Conflict, Peace Walker will further explore the philosophical and political ramifications of war as commerce, as well as its longterm deleterious effects on society, the economy, and ourselves.”
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“The authors speculate that high calcium levels may be involved in processes that take a longer time to cause harm, such as the calcification of blood vessels or soft tissues, while low calcium levels may cause short-term deleterious effects such as heart rhythm abnormalities.”
“I firmly believe that his enlargement of government will create a drag on our future progress that will have long term deleterious effects on our well being.”
“Heavy-handed government intervention without regard for human dignity produces long-term deleterious effects.”
“Logging them would only disturb this process with long-term deleterious effects to the ecosystem.”
“The real critical issue that everyone is struggling with is, What about the potential long-term deleterious effects of ART that might override the beneficial effects?" says Fauci.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘deleterious’.
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 272 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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phrontistery - d
from phrontistery.info
dacnomania, dacoitage, dacryops, dactylioglyph, dactyliology, dactyliomancy, dactylogram, dactylography, dactyloid, dactylology, dactylomancy, dactylomegaly and 624 more...
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Article's related words
reading 2 articles a week and here will reference unknown words, weekly!
fervor, belie, inure, hiatus, ambivalent, chasten, revere, despise, expurgate, edify, neologism, inchoate and 13 more...
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Remember Not To Forget
Sephardic, Umwelt, amphiboly, untrammeled, sequela, pandiculation, tensegrity, syncretism, pugilism, shemagh, disquisition, perspicacity and 74 more...
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Harmful
quick, hurtful, ruinous, noxious, destructive, deadly, mischievous, deleterious, baneful, injurious, baleful, malicious and 24 more...
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five syllables
ontogenesis, phylogenesis, concatenation, androgenesis, extra textual, inexorably, spagyrically, apophenia, iatrochemist, monocotyloid, morphological, parthenogenic and 998 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3027 more... -
Need to Know!
elicit, educe, refute, cogency, churlish, martinet, veritable, polyglot, dissemble, histrionics, prevarication, verbiage and 166 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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SAT vocab
abash, abate, abdicate, aberration, abhor, abject, abnegate, abortive, absolve, abstruse, accolade, accost and 175 more...
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GRE
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abhor, abjure, abrasive, abridge, abstain, acme, activism, adhere, admonish and 195 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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rhii's words to remember and incorporate
Just whatever words I might happen across in my wanderings that I find myself compelled to write down so that I remember to try to use them. Not necessarily unusual words, but worthwhile ones.
redact, treatise, vitrify, cogitate, propensity, silphium, saccharine, minutiae, sluicing, dalliance, remonstrated, carnelian and 131 more...
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Misc.
juxtaposition, lavish, expenditure, prodigal, disbursement, epicenter, liable, lade, entreaty, exhortation, incidental, temperament and 50 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for deleterious.
bilby Quite a musical word. You know, you get up on Saturday, throw a pancake against the wall, change into your blue tartan dress boxers, spin some Deleterious on the stereo while you sip lime coolers on the balcony and reflect that if the potplants haven't died already, not even you can kill them.
Surely can't be all that bad. Mar 12, 2009
seanahan I almost always here this in terms of mutations. Feb 2, 2008